Allison qualified for State wrestling this year! The first group of pictures if from her qualifying for state match.
Qualifying match videos
It is pretty awesome that she made it to State!! We were excited for her. The parents made ‘fat heads’ for their kids and we attended the parade walk for them around the school before they left. She missed a lot of regular practices because of some therapy she was doing but she made them up with morning practices and worked really hard.
Allison has been working hard at wrestling. Her meet tomorrow is for Regionals. I haven’t been at her last few meets so I am excited to see her.
She took 4th at league. Here are some pictures with her and her team. We are proud of her for how hard she works at wrestling.
Here we go! A new year of experiences, growing, changing, learning, and memories to add to our lives.
Emilee went to Arkansas for the last part of 2025 and spent a few days with her cousin Lizzy. They had a great time and loved getting to be together. She was with them for New Year Eve and we picked her up New Year Day. We hadn’t opened presents yet so when she got home we opened some with her. Our family pajama pants this year were Dr. Pepper pants. Some of us are very big fans of Dr. Pepper. And speaking of things that people are big fans of, Emilee is also a big fan of Bluey…the cartoon for preschool kids…but there is apparently a big following of middle school kids that love it too. She got a pair of Bluey pajama pants for Christmas and she got her dad a pair for Christmas so we had to get that on camera.
A few days after the New Year it was warm enough to practice shooting her bow so we went outside and used the new target she got for Christmas.
Matthew is now in his Black Out Year. It is a term missionaries use for the year of their mission that they are gone from home for the whole 365 days of the year. The crappy part of that is the definition I just gave you. The silver lining is when it is done it will be just a few more months until he comes home. He is doing really well. His Portuguese gets better everyday and he is learning and growing a lot. We are proud of him and excited for the opportunities he is having. He is missed a lot. We went to dinner the other night at Costa Vida where he used to work. He called us while we were there and talked to some of the people he used to work with which he thought was awesome. On the way there we made this video for him so he could hear one of his favorite songs and see some of the Kansas sunset. Allison was in the car with us but didn’t want to be in the video.
Allison is working hard at wrestling. She is doing early morning practices and spends most of her weekends at meets. The most recent meet at Blue Valley North West she took 3rd place. Here is a video of her at a match in Topeka.
Emilee is still doing her weekly riding lesson. She moved to a new barn this year. She is getting pretty good and comfortable on a horse. It is fun to watch her.
Allison had a meet for wrestling in Basehor. This wasn’t her best meet as far as winning her matches but I am impressed with her dedication to wrestling and how much time and effort she puts into it. It is fun to watch her and cheer her on.
I love Calvin and Hobbes comic strips. I have several books of them. Every few years I come across them and decide to read them again. I did that about a week ago. This one makes me laugh, and I remember reading it with Matthew when he was 6-7 and he thought it was hilarious too. I sent him a picture of it in his missionary photo album that our family has for him.
Emilee is still doing her riding lessons once a week. She is getting pretty good. She is still doing English riding style and does 1-1 1/2 foot jumps. I don’t know a lot about riding but I have been watching her enough to be able to tell who can ride a horse and who is sitting on a horse bouncing around. Emilee definitely looks like she is confident and knows how to work with the horse.
Since it is close to the end of the year my phone is putting collages together and showing me ‘a year in review’ or ‘people over the years’. It showed me this one of Allison and I thought it was pretty cute. She is a funny, sweet, fierce girl. I sure do love her.
Emilee has a Bluey (kids cartoon) shirt that she got this year and wears to school. It is a little bit of a thing for middle school and high school kids to wear/have items that are kids cartoon stuff. Allison has a Barbie lunch box, and Emilee likes Bluey. Matthew teases them both and gives them a hard time about it. We were Christmas shopping and Emilee found a big Bluey stuffed animal. She sent Matthew a picture and told him it would be on his bed for him when he got home.
This might be the last year I get a cute decorated Christmas list from Emilee, my other two already don’t do it anymore. So here is the list she gave me. My kids know they don’t get everything on their list but I like to have lots of ideas. They also know I don’t give living gifts but they still put them on their lists sometimes.
Allison’s wrestling season has started! Her first tournament was the Spring Hill Invitational. She did awesome! She took 2nd place for the varsity 135 weight. She was disappointed that she didn’t win but she looked really good. I could already see improvement from last year. Ryan and I enjoy watching her.
Her first dual was against Pittsburg. She did great at that one too. I don’t watch her wrestle through the camera because I want to see it in real life so sometimes my camera doesn’t follow her like I think I am . I was also sitting pretty close so I had to move the camera a lot more to keep her in frame.
Her second tournament was in Douglas Kansas which is a few hours away. It was during the week so Ryan and I weren’t able to go. She won her first match and then lost her second and third. Maybe her dad and I are better luck than she thinks we are. 😜 Hopefully we won’t miss any more meets this season. She is hoping to make it to State this year. She is putting in the work, hopefully it pays off!
Spring Hill had their homecoming dance at the beginning of September this year. Allison went with a group of her friends. They came over here after school and each of them brought some food. They had a potluck dinner while they got ready together to go take pictures. Then I drove them all to Heritage Park. Several of their moms met us there and we took pictures. After pictures were taken they changed into football game attire and I dropped them off at the game. It is a bit of a hectic night because they have the game and the dance on the same night. A little after halftime I picked them up again and they came back to our house to get back into their dance outfits. When they were ready I took them back to the school to attend the dance. They said it was fun and they had a good time. When I picked them up we stopped at McDonalds for some ice cream on the way home and then some of them went home, some of them spent the night. I think everyone had fun, looked pretty and made good high school memories.
The first weekend after Matthew left I was pretty down in the dumps. Ryan tried to distract me a little bit. There was a Commemorative Airplane Show at an airport near by so we went with some friends to check it out. There were jeeps, helicopters, a museum and a handful of plans from WWII and Vietnam.
Allison went on her annual lake trip with a group of her friends for their friend Olivia’s birthday. This is the third year she has gone.
The Jones family picture that was taken on at Thanksgiving has now become outdated. John and Rachel had their fourth baby, second girl, Johanna. I believe they are going to call her Jojo. She was in the NICU for a few days because her breathing was struggling but she is doing great now.
Allison has been taking drivers education and practicing driving the past year. She recently got her learners permit for driving bumped up to her restricted driver license. That means she can now drive by herself, or with one sibling, to work, church, or school. For her first drive with Emilee to the church for youth night we took these pictures of her backing out. Its kind of hard to see but the first one is Allison crossing her fingers, and the second one is Emilee’s reaction when she saw her doing it. It was pretty funny. Allison did great and everyone got to and from where they were supposed to safely.
While Matthew started the MTC the girls started school! Allison is a soft more at Spring Hill High School. She is taking honors math and chemistry and an AP History class. She is planning on wrestling in the winter. Emilee is a 7th grader at Forest Springs Middle School. She is excited for math, spanish and her engineering class. She is doing club softball and still doing her riding lessons. Hopefully they will both have busy fun school years!
It was a little last minute but we decided to work in one more family vacation before Matthew left. He loves the heat and the ocean so we decided to go with Gulf Shores.
We left on a Friday afternoon. The Torgerson’s were in Branson at Silver Dollar City so we drove to them and spent the evening with them and doing as many rides and roller coasters as we could. After we ended the night watching the drone/firework show (which was pretty cool) we stayed in a hotel near by and then left early the next morning to get to Gulf Shores.
We headed to the beach once we got to Gulf Shores, it was great weather and the waves were really nice, but unfortunately they were having one of their worst peak jellyfish seasons. It was a bit of a bummer. We played in the water a little bit, we all got a little sting here and there but Emilee got a pretty bad sting on her arm and neck. They were sea nettles which are not lethal but extremely painful. She was mad, frustrated, sad, and hurt all at once. After that we waded in the waves and stuck pretty close to the beach instead of the water. We played catch and enjoyed relaxing but we didn’t get to spend as much time on the beach as we hoped.
We spent the next few days relaxing and enjoying each others company. We went to the movies, a waterpark, played lots of games, Matthew, Ryan and Emilee went golfing, we swam in the pool, went shopping, did icee runs at the gas station and got ice cream at our usual spot. It used to be called Matt’s Ice Cream but they changed the name to Sweet Cone. We liked the first name better for obvious reasons.
We drove home on Allison’s birthday which isn’t very fun for her so we let her pick our activity the night before we left. She went with a 3D glow in the dark dinosaur miniature golf. It was pretty fun! I think Emilee lost but the score card showed that I lost.
We got home around 10pm on Allison’s birthday. Happy 15th birthday! Her presents were at Grandma Terry’s along with her guinea pigs so we stopped there first and brought them home with us so she could open them. Friday we did her birthday cake and she went swimming with a friend. Sunday we had more birthday cake with all the family in town-including Grandma and Grandpa Jones who were here to visit. And on Monday she went to brunch with some friends and then they hung out at our house for the day. So we spread it out over a few days but she still had some good birthday celebrating.
This is last Summer but I wanted to make sure it is in one of my books. This is from our back porch. I love our view and seeing the beautiful sky.
We went to a karaoke bar for Ryan’s birthday. They had a band playing for part of the night and the friends we were with had them announce happy birthday to Ryan. He was thrilled and loved getting to sing-If I Had A Million Dollars.
I got these pretty flowers for my porch but they blooms only lasted like a day and I kept cutting the dead ones off every morning and was frustrated they didn’t last very long. Then somewhere in the cobwebs of my brain I remembered that some flowers close up at night and then open in the day. So I waited a little longer and then went out and checked them and sure enough they had opened and looked beautiful! I’m glad I remembered before I cut off perfectly good flowers all summer.
Allison went on a youth temple trip.
Found this sign above a drinking fountain in Emilee’s softball facility. It is now one of my favorite quotes to share with my children.
Emilee went to her first church girls camp and had a great time. The food was ‘tolerable’ the weather was 80’s-AMAZING, the cabins were air conditioned and there was a lot of fun activities!
Memorial Day weekend usually feels like the kick off to Summer for us. This year is was cold and rainy, so it was a bit of a ‘waawaa’ kick off but it was still Summer! The first few weeks were unusually cool and lots of rain, it wasn’t really hot until almost the end of June, we still squeezed in fun stuff.
Allison started her Summer with Girl Scout Day camp. She was a youth leader again this year so they had a few sleep overs in addition to just the day camp that the younger girls do. The theme this year was the Lorax from Dr Suess and Allison kept her streak of winning the swap award for her creative swaps she makes. They recommend bring 10-20 swaps. Allison always makes about 100 and this year she came home and made more because people were seeking her out wanting her swaps and she ran out.
After GS camp, she had a wrestling camp that she did. then she was off to Florida for a few weeks to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa Jones. They love having her and she loves going.
When she got back from Florida, her and Leah had a Creative Camp for kids age 4-12 that they planned and did together. They did a really good job. They had 10 kids sign up and their crafts were pretty awesome. I was impressed with their organization and planning and carrying the whole thing out. They are both really great with kids.
Emilee has been reading, hanging out with friends and swimming as much as she can. She started the Summer by going to Arkansas and spending the week with her cousin Lizzy at her house and then a few days at Mimi’s house. They have a pool in their back yard so they love being able to swim whenever they feel like it. She has been playing softball. She did a rec team this year, and quickly decided that she would rather do a competitive team again so we signed her up for tryouts in July.
When she got back from Arkansas she had horse camp for a week. She still enjoys it but she is becoming a fair weather horse rider. If it is to hot or to cold she would rather pass. We will see how much longer she is interested in it.
Shortly after Allison got back from Florida, her and Matthew headed out and spent a week there. She loves going to Florida too. Grandma makes them all kinds of yummy foods, stays up late watching shows and movies, and takes them swimming and to fun places around Tampa. Kenny and Sherri visited for a few of the days while Matt and Emilee were in Florida so they got to see them and spend time with cousins too. Matt kicked Sherri’s butt in pickle ball a half dozen times and then she made him play her left handed and ended up beating him by a hair. She talks about beating him in pickle ball now…but doesn’t mention the first 6 games.😂😉
Matthew has been enjoying his Summer before he heads to Brazil on his mission. We have been getting all his clothes and supplies that he is supposed to bring gathered together. His friends Carter left on his mission at the end of June so they spent as much time hanging out, playing games, eating Costa Vida, and fishing as they could. He has done some odd jobs for people to earn a little money, been a huge help in getting the girls to and from their activities, and playing some baseball.
His FBC team decided to do a handful of tournaments this Summer. We didn’t think they would but enough of them were around for the Summer that it ended up working out. His competitive team is way more fun than high school, it has been fun to see them playing together and having a good time. Coach Jimmy has been his coach since 5th grade. He has spent hundreds of hours coaching and practicing. He has been an amazing coach.
He also loves going to Tampa to spend time with the grandparents. He has a fishing pole he keeps at their house and they have a lake right by them so he can literally walk out the front door and fish anytime he wants. Grandma keeps a steady supply of ice cream and other treats for him too.
June has flown by. This summer is going way to fast, and I don’t think it is going to slow down. We are trying to make the most of it and enjoy every minute together before Matt leaves.
Allison had her wrestling banquet a few months after the season was over. They had a dessert bar and beverages with an awards ceremony. They asked all the wrestlers to dress nice. Usually we only see them in their singlets and head gear, so a few of them I almost didn’t recognize. Allison got the JV Wrestler of the year award!
Winter was filled with Allison’s wrestling matches. This was Allison’s first High School wrestling season. It is from November to February, if they make state it is a few weeks longer. She initially started on varsity because she beat the girl for her weight class. A few weeks later another girl dropped down to Allison’s weight class and took her spot on varsity and she was bumped to JV. Allison decided to drop down another weight class and then wrestled in that weight class the rest of the season sometimes on varsity sometimes on JV depending on another senior girl wrestler.
I think she did pretty awesome! She didn’t seem to think she did overly great but when she wrestled JV she won most of the time. Two of her meets and one dual she took 1st place. When she wrestled varsity her record was pretty close to 50/50 wins vs losses. That’s were she thought she didn’t do good but as a freshman wrestling mostly Junior and Senior girls with a lot more experience I think that is a great first year.
It is fun to watch her and see her determination and commitment to it. Not just at meets but watching weight and maintaining it where she wants it while conditioning and putting a lot of time into practice between meets. Ryan and I learned a lot more about it too. I am still not an expert but I know how points are scored and more of what the verbiage and things the ref does or says while she is wrestling means. I also figured out how to combine her individual match videos into one so I can have one video instead of a bunch of short ones. Very proud of myself for that.
It was a good season. She loves to be busy so it was good for her to have that. She is contemplating doing track next…
This is a match that was far away so I didn’t make it to watch her but she won 1st place.
Here are a few of her matches. The first one is a dual she won by technical fall which means she won by getting 15 points ahead of her opponent.
This next one is a match that she wrestled seniors every time. She took 7th in her weight class.
The last one is her last JV match of the season and she took 1st place again. She dominated the first match, used her endurance in the second match, and dominated again the third match.
December was just lovely. It flew by really fast but it wasn’t chaotic and out of control with to much going on. It was perfect.
We made treats, did puzzles, listened to music, looked at lights, drank hot chocolate, did toys for tots and the giving tree, wrapped presents, watched Christmas movies, went to Christmas parties, celebrated with family and friends. It was an awesome month.
Allison had another wrestling match. It was an away meet so we didn’t go but someone recorded it for us. Spoiler alert-she wins! I finally figured out how to combine her videos so we can watch all her matches for a meet in one video.
https://youtu.be/IAO7dOd16K4?list=PLBwkO01uWtw9DJu2WA-l0-1CZ6EuoK5Kl
Ryan and I went on a brief overnight date to downtown Kansas City. He gets a free weekend night as a perk through his Hilton credit card so we usually use it in December. We went with our friends Dani and RJ. We booked a few reservations at some of the Christmas pop up places they have for appetizers, dinner, and dessert and had a nice relaxing night with lots of visiting.
Christmas was on a Wednesday this year. The kids finished school the Friday before and Ryan and I had our last day of work on Monday. Then we had the next week off to celebrate Christmas, New Years and enjoy being lazy, and getting things done around the house that we wanted to. Ryan built some shelves for all the decorations in our storage room. I haven’t taken down all the Christmas decorations yet so I will wait to take a picture when its all packed away and finished. He installed a new security system around our house. I was in my purging our house of things that we don’t need anymore and customizing/organizing a few areas. I did Ryan and my closet, the pantry, and the storage room- which like I said is now just waiting on the Christmas decorations. We played games with the kids and hung out. There is a touch of a sad note for me this year because it will be the last Christmas before our kids start leaving the house and we start tip toeing into a new era in our lives. That is another reason I really wanted to soak everything in as much as possible.
Allison decided to do wrestling again this year. In October she went to the middle school after school and helped there for a few weeks. It helped her get a little extra conditioning in too. Then in November her high school season started. It is a lot of hard work. I think she will do good at it though if she wants to. She made varsity. Campbell is on varsity too and helps us get Allison to and from practices a lot which is awesome. It is fun to watch her wrestle, even though she tries to get us not to come most of the time. We still attend and love watching her. She won one of her three matches at her first meet.
This year our Halloween ended up looking a little different than it has for the last 10 years. The McDonalds kids and ours all made individual plans with their friends so we didn’t get together like we usually do. We still made pizza and home made root beer for people to eat as they came and went to get ready or stop in on the way to their party. Our houses in our new neighborhood are spread out pretty far so we didn’t have any trick or treaters.
Matthew dress up as Dr Duffensmirch from Phineas and Ferb. Campbell was Harry the platypus. They went to a party with a group of their friends from school. They actually went trick or treating for a little bit too.
Allison and her friends assembled matching outfits and were gangster minions together. They went trick or treating in Grandpa Terry’s neighborhood and then spent the night at our house.
Emilee was a witch this year. She went trick or treating with Reese and a few other girls. They picked a neighborhood that is known for handing out full size candy bars and they were not disappointed. They found a few haunted houses people were doing as they trick or treated too.
Ryan rediscovered his Joe Dirt costume from almost two decades ago and proudly wore it to work. He gave himself a goatee to go with the costume.
The night of Halloween Ryan and I shuttled the girls around were they needed to go and then enjoyed a quite night at home. We did go to a Halloween party with Dani and RJ Halloween weekend. RJ is a pilot so he provided Ryan with an outfit to borrow and Dani and I got First Officer costumes to go with them. I think we were a hit. Ryan LOVED being a pilot too.
September is one of my favorite months, and not just because it is my birthday. Its a little bit of a chill month. And usually the weather is beautiful, cooler and still pretty. Sometimes the leaves start changing at the end but this year was pretty warm so it was almost end of October before they started. Fall is just my favorite. I really like all the seasons and maybe they are all my favorite when they start, but I think Fall is my favorite right now…since it is Fall.
Per my request, Ryan took me to a Royals game with our friends the Gudjenov’s for my birthday. It was a great game, great company, fun environment and good food. Turning 43 wasn’t bad at all. I highly recommend it.
Emilee opted to not do softball for the Fall. She stuck with horse lessons and piano. She still loves horse riding and looks forward to her lesson every week. She is pushing to quit piano right now. I am letting her take a little break and then hoping she gets back into it.
Allison took a break from extra curricular activities for the first time…ever. She wants to start doing a weight training program but we are still discussing which one to do. She is going to help with wrestling at the middle school which starts mid October and is followed immediately by HS wrestling so she will be busy again before to long.
Of course football started. Matthew and Ryan both are in a few different fantasy football leagues. They love it and look forward to it all year. This picture is his school buddies that he does a league with each year. They get together and draft their teams and eat way to many donuts and junk food.
Homecoming was in September this year, I think it is a little early but nobody asked me. Matthew went to his last Homecoming with Campbell. Ramey and Ellie doubled with them. They took pictures while the sun was still up, then they changed into casual clothes and went to dinner at Taco Bell. Then it was off to the football game. Shortly before the game ended they went to change into their dance outfits again and then went back to the school for the dance. After the dance they hung out at Ellie’s house and played games. Matthew is still growing pretty fast and starting to put on weight too. The pants he is wearing he at the end of July for senior pics with Campbell. Just two months later he barely fit into them!
While Matthew was at his last Homecoming, Allison was at her first!! She went with a couple friends and had a fun time. We had pizza at out house for dinner and pre-game hanging out. She went to the football game with her friend Olivia and met other friends at the game. They came over to our house and got ready at half time and then I took them back to the dance. After the dance she spent the night at Olivia’s. Allison looked beautiful and so did her friends. I think they had a fun time at their first official high school dance.
Each year at the high school they have FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes). It is several school districts in the area that get together and do it and Spring Hill hosted this year. One of Matthew’s best friends, Ramey, spoke at it and several other people he knew participated in it. Matthew and Allison both went but this is the only picture I got from it. I am really glad Matthew has always picked good friends that have good morals and values. He has a great group of friends- boys and girls- that really support each other and are good kids.
It was a big year for the kids in school this year!
Emilee is officially a middle schooler now. She started at Forest Spring Middle School. Because of our move she is attending a new middle school that Matt or Allison didn’t attend so she gets to blaze her own path. She was a little nervous to start without really knowing people. It was hard to not be going to the middle school most of her friends were at. She was a good sport about it and crushed her first day. She even made a few friends right away because she was pretty good at opening lockers so she helped some girls around her a few times. She was most excited about her FACS class and engineering class. She catches a bus each morning which I think she likes because she is on her own schedule and doesn’t have to wait for anyone.
Allison left middle school behind and became a Freshman this year. She is planning on doing wrestling in the winter. She decided to give Spanish one more try because last year was a disaster with a new teacher that has now been fired and not a lot of Spanish was learned. She rides with Matthew and is pretty gracious with accepting that she is the Freshman and he is the Senior so she doesn’t get to pick the music or where they park. She started seminary this year and has done great at getting up and getting there on time. She likes to be in the know so she is quickly learning every person in the schools name. She has a good group of friends that seem to get along pretty good for the most part. She would love to get a job and is keeping her ears open but opportunities are a little scarce for 14 year olds.
I remember when Matthew was in kindergarten they called them the class of 2025 and I thought I had forever until then. Now it is here and it doesn’t seem like it took forever at all. He has the confidence of a senior that has high school figured out…but is in no hurry to graduate yet. He should have 9-12 college credits when he graduates and could take a few less classes his last semester but he loves weights and lifetime fitness so much he is going to take them. He has Campbell and a solid group of friends that keep him busy along with his part time job at Costa Vida. Seniors had a first day of school sunrise event that he went to the first day. We are all going to try and make the most out of his last year in HS and enjoy all the things. Starting with senior pictures which he is not as excited about but his mother has told him are very required. I know his eyes are closed in most of these pictures. These were the best our of the 20 options I took. He said, “Its ok mom, it will remind me I was to tired to even open my eyes on the first day of school.”
Matthew and Campbell and a few other friends started the first week of school off by going to a Zach Bryan concert. He is one of both of their favorites. Matthew says one of his top three favorites. They had a great time and stayed up really late on a school night, just like seniors should.
Zach Bryan Concert
After the float trip it was pretty much time to get ready for back to school. Since we weren’t doing our own family vacation anywhere this Summer I was a little worried it would be a boring, slow Summer. It really wasn’t though. We had lots of family come visit and between camps, sports and the kids going to visit grandparents we were pretty busy.
Sherrie and Dave (Ryan’s birth mom) came up for a visit at the beginning of Summer to watch Matthew play baseball. We had some extra time between games and were right by Liberty so we went and saw the Liberty jail visitor center with them. His half brother Dave and his family came up to visit for a weekend too. They took Allison to the zoo with them on the day Emilee had a softball tournament. Emilee went home with them for a week and spent time with her cousin Lizzy and then they stayed at our house for a week too.
We squeezed Matthew getting his wisdom teeth out between baseball seasons. He recovered pretty quickly. We were very grateful for that because a week after he had them out Campbell wanted him to take pictures with her for part of her senior pictures and we were worried he would have bruising or maybe still be swollen. He was fine, still a little hard to smile a full smile but the pictures turned out great. Campbell is a sweetheart. She is outgoing and responsible and beautiful. Her and Matthew are pretty cute together.
Allison was not in a hurry to get her learners permit once she turned 14 but I was. Kansas makes them have it a full year from when they get it before it can become a limited license and they can drive themselves to school and work. Allison is young for her grade so I need her to have that before the start of next school year so she can drive herself to school. Matthew and her go together this year- which I love- it is great sibling time for them. So…we braved the stupid DMV to get her learners permit. They tried their best to be difficult. My deep breathing exercises before and during all interactions helped me remain calm. Even though we had an appointment to get a learners permit scheduled through their system they tried to tell me they wouldn’t have time to do it before they closed. Even though their computer stopped working so they thought we wouldn’t be able to finish. Even though my valid drivers license with my current address wasn’t proof enough and I had to find an electric bill that anyone could forge to prove my legal, valid, #1 source of identification drivers license did in fact have my real address on it. Even though the employee had to work until 4:32 instead of 4:30. Even through all that made up stupid drama, we all persevered, Allison passed the test, took a beautiful picture and got her learners permit! When I took these pictures in the car she told me she had used up her one good picture for the permit so this is the best I was going to get.
Ryan had a work trip to upstate New York right as school was starting. I had never been there so I decided to tag along. It is a lot different than New York City. It is a lot like Kansas. We stayed in a VRBO with his boss and a few of the other VP’s of the company. There were some other spouses that came too. There were several nice dinners, and the main work event was a day at the Saratoga Race Track watching horse races. Neither of us had ever been to a horse race so it was a cool experience. We also wrote our names on a table at one of the places we went to mark our spot in history that we were there.🤣 We had a great long weekend. We did a ferry boat tour of one of Lake George. I am glad Ryan has found a place that he loves to work at and feels pride and happiness from it. He works hard and works with good people. I am proud of him and appreciate all he does to provide for his family.
A few years back when Ryan found is biological mom and met her and more of her side of the family, he also looked into his biological dads side. His dad passed away back in the late 90’s and the only family he really has left was a sister and a cousin. Ryan didn’t reach out to either of them because he was a little overwhelmed at the time and was working through the emotions of meeting Sherrie. His information was public on the 23 and Me website so his dads cousin saw the connection and put it together and he and his aunt-Rae-Ann reached out to Ryan to see if he would be interested in meeting them. He talked with them on the phone and a few times after that as well every few months but it never worked out to meet them in person. In August he was traveling pretty close to where Rae Ann lives and he felt ok about meeting her so he reached out and they set a meeting up for an afternoon while he was in the area. He said said it was a nice afternoon and he appreciated meeting her and getting to know her and more about that part of his history from her. He plans on keeping in touch with her and his cousin going forward. Here is a picture of there first meeting. I can see a family resemblance in them.
The kids all went to Florida this Summer to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa Jones. Allison went first. I know my mom loves it but all my kids like going to visit too, especially Allison. She can relax and not have anyone to mother. My parents always seem to find fun places or things to do while they are there too. This year they went on a swamp tour in an airboat and held some alligators. They did some school shopping. They got hooked on the show The Flash, went swimming, baked lots of cookies and treats, and did more shopping. She flew there and back on her own. I don’t love it, but I am able to take her to the gate and my mom picks her up at the gate. While she was there is was her Aunt Rachel’s birthday so they decided to make her a video with a birthday song. I will attach it to this post for your enjoyment.
https://youtu.be/6W9G-e-jnh4?list=PLBwkO01uWtw9DJu2WA-l0-1CZ6EuoK5Kl
On a sadder note, shortly before she left, her guinea pig Peanut passed away. We had him for almost 5 years. He was the first one she got and he had a very happy life. She took amazing care of him. He had a few vet check ups and the vet always said he was well taken care of. It was all Allison. We could tell he was getting pretty old and might not be around to much longer. She spent a lot of time with him the last few days swinging in the hammock with him wrapped in a towel snuggling with her. The morning we found he had passed away Allison and I went and found a nice wooden box to bury him in. Emilee painted some wooden grave markers for him, and Matthew and dad dug a hole for him. We buried him in the flower bed by Allison’s window.
That left us with Milo. Allison watched him pretty closely and thought he was getting lonely. Guinea pigs are pretty social creatures. We discussed it for a while. Milo is three years old and I didn’t want to get another baby. I didn’t want to get another one at all, but we looked around and found a lady that had a guinea pig rescue. She had a few male guinea pigs that were about the same age as Milo. Dad and Allison took Milo over to her house to meat the different ones and see if there were any that would make a good buddy for him. There were a few solid ‘No’s’ but Milo seemed to like a chubby chill guy named Oreo. Allison brought him home and over the next few days they became the best of friends and Allison renamed him Bubbles because Oreo was to basic. All is right with the guinea pigs once again.
These are pictures I have that I like but didn’t really need a full post about them, or didn’t go with pictures taken at the same time that I put in other posts. So I thought I would just do a collection of them here.
Both of these pictures are in Utah when we were staying with DeAnna for my Grandpa’s funeral. I thought 6 people brushing their teeth in the bathroom was pretty cute. DeAnna made lots of good food while we were there too, Sherri wanted to document that ‘she can cook but chooses not to’. While we were in Utah, dad took Emilee and Matthew to their softball and baseball tournaments they had going on that weekend. They love it so much they decided to go watch a Royals game one of the nights we were gone.
I am not sure where we were coming back from…maybe the eclipse, but the girls were being a little grumpy to each other but when they fell asleep they snuggled right up to each other.
This is one of the many times we have had to rent a skid loader to do some lawn stuff. It won’t be the last either. Ryan and I take turns between freaking out about why we have so much land to take care of and someday it will be awesome.
We try and do an annual amusement park day with our cousins each year. Sometimes it ends up being in Branson and Silver Dollar City, sometimes Worlds/Oceans of Fun. It was a great time this year. Everyone is tall enough for all the rides. Jovee is the biggest adrenaline junky and finally hit the tallest minimum requirement for the rides she had been waiting to go on for years. We went on July 3rd which was begging for heat stroke, but the weather was cloudy and perfect so it was a great day.
We have had typical so hot and humid days you can barely go outside this Summer for sure but there have been a lot more than usual gorgeous beautiful weather days. This hammock is one of our favorite spots to hangout on those days.
Allison finished up 8th grade this year! She survived middle school and is ready for her Freshman year. She did a lot during her middle school career. She tried orchestra, wrestling, weights, theater, art teachers aid, and track, all while making friends, and finding out who the good friends were and keeping up pretty good grades. She was on the honor roll each year.
Emilee finished 5th grade and elementary school this year! She will be moving to a new middle school next year that neither of her siblings went to so she will blaze her own path. She finished the year with a wax museum project and finished reading the Harry Potter books. She got a bunch of books from a friend to read over the summer and she is excited to read them. She is looking forward to taking a cooking class, and engineering class in middle school. She loves to build things and see how they work. She also decided that she is ready to get contacts for next year. She doesn’t want to do orchestra or band so she is going to stick with the piano.
Matthew finished his Junior year and will be a Senior next year! He supported his high school baseball varsity team at State and they ended up taking second place. Life and our family will have some big changes when he graduates. He wants to get as much baseball in as he can over the next year. He has tournaments every weekend in June and July and then Fall ball starts in September so he will have plenty. He got a new job at Costa Vida. He loves working there because of the free or discounted food he gets. He also gets to look forward to having his wisdom teeth removed this Summer and taking his Senior pictures. We are taking a family cruise that he is helping plan in October together too.
Once Spring started making its appearance we did a few projects on the outside of the house. We put in the flower beds, lined them and filled them with rocks. We got the front flower beds planted. We will keep working on them a each year. We have a plan but it is a few year plan before it will be all done. We got some patio furniture so we can enjoy our deck and the patio. One of my favorite things we did was hang patio lights from the ceiling and hung up a hammock. It is so relaxing. We love it! For our house warming gift Ryan’s parents gave us a blackstone grill. We have family gatherings and do cookouts with it a lot. The kids have been requesting a trampoline and we got that so there would be more to do outside. Fall and Spring will be really nice to use outside. Once it gets hot it gets a little buggy and is not so great but I love having some outdoor spaces to enjoy!
This is pictures of out patio lights and a rainbow we saw from our deck one night.
Mother’s Day this year was nice. Ryan and the kids made me dinner and spoiled me on Sunday. The day before we did a family service project for the local food pantry. It has been a while since we have done it and Ryan and I felt like we were due for some service. This time we went to one in Lawrence Kansas. The Harvester truck brought a bunch of food to a local church and unloaded it. The volunteers divided it up and got ready to disperse it, then a line of cars came through and we loaded it into each car. We all enjoyed it. We need to get back into it as a regular thing that we do. We went to lunch together after that and then the kids helped me plant another flower bed for part of their Mother’s Day to me. It is so nice having grown children to help with projects. It saves my back a lot!
Of course with Spring the kids started their Spring sports. Allison is finishing up her gymnastic season about the time school ends. She had sever meets and got a personal best on the bar 9.5. It was pretty awesome to see her! She added a few new flips to her floor routine that she learned as well. In the Fall she thought this might be her last season for gymnastics, but as it got closer to the end she decided she wasn’t quite ready to be done. She has at least one more year in her! After the last meet they did the end of the year banquet. They had Mexican food and cake for dessert. The girls all dressed up and seemed to have a fun time. She got the “Tootsie Roll” reward for being able to roll with whatever she is doing at the gym. She was also voted by her team to win the Spirit Award because she is always positive and helps keep everyone focused during practice and meets. She is pretty awesome. Allison excels and puts full effort into whatever she does. She is a great leader and her dad and I were proud of her for showing that this year in gymnastics. It made us happy that her team recognized it in her too.
Matthew played for his High School team this year during the Spring. He played for JV as the short stop, and the coaches also took him to varsity games to help and fill in where they needed him. The varsity team made it to state again this year. Matthew went with them. Last year they lost the first game but this year they made it to the final game and ended up taking second. Matt loves baseball and loves to play as much as he can. There is some school politics that make the high school season not as fun but he had a good time. He was really excited to get into the competitive season with his regular team. His arm was back to full mobility in February and he worked on the strength side of it through the last semester. He was hitting well but his strength really started coming back and he started hitting some bombs at the beginning of his competitive season. His strength isn’t 100% yet but it coming back quick. He is consistently hitting doubles and triples and even got a home run during one of his HS games. It is fun to watch your kids do something they love.
High school baseball pictures
Emilee played softball again this Spring. Her team last year split in half and some stayed rec and some tried competitive. Emilee decided to try competitive. She decided to pick the same number as Matthew and she loved doing batting practice and playing catch with him. If he was able to come to her games she always came up to say hi and was super excited he was there. She played mostly short stop, center field or 1st base. She improved a lot and had a good time. Her team ended up getting 4th in the division they played in.
In April of this year there was a total lunar eclipse crossing the united states. It was similar to the one that was about 7 years ago that we went up to Lincoln Nebraska to see. Sherrie and Dave Torgerson’s house in Dardenelle Arkansas was in the direct path and they were going to have totality for almost 5 full minutes. We decided to take a very quick mini-cation and drive down Sunday afternoon to see it with them on Monday and then come home Monday afternoon. There were lots of family there which meant lots of cousins to play with. The weather was great so the kids got out water balloons and played a lot of games outside.
Allison and one of her besties Allie Sluga went on a little trip together. Allie invited her to go to the Ozarks with her and her grandparents took them for a few days. They had lots of girl time and did lots of shopping together.
Allison got one of her best scores on the beam at her last gymnastic meet this year. She got a 9.5!!
Matthew had his Junior Prom this year. He went with Campbell. They both looked great! It was a little crazy helping him get measured for a tux and getting the flowers and plans ready. Time really does fly when your kids grow up. They went in a group with his friends Ramey and Nick. They took pictures at a winery before they went to dinner at an Italian restaurant. Then they stopped by our house for a few minutes before they went to the dance. When the dance was over they came home and changed then went to the after party. It was at Chicken and Pickle. It was a great place for the afterparty. Unlimited chicken fingers and pickleball to play. Matthew won a few rounds and got some of the prizes for pickle ball.
This is a side by side of their first dance together- Freshman year Homecoming dance, and Junior Prom.
We have been trying to have a family game night once a week or so. It is a little tricky because all of us have to much going on but we do what we can. Sometimes it is a board game or card game but one night Emilee requested we play hide-n-seek. The last time we played it took all of us almost an hour to find Matthew. He was still small enough to fit under the sink in a bathroom and none of us even thought to look. So he was our current hide-n-seek champion. Allison claimed the thrown this time though. After a few rounds, it was dads turn to find everyone. Allison, requested a little assistance to get up in her spot. She was the last to be found and it took a little clue for dad to see her. Can you see her?
Matthew kept himself busy with the Stake basketball tournament on the weekends in February. The first week we went to our new ward they announced it then were moving on because they assumed no one wanted to play since they had passed on participating the year before. Matthew looks forward to this every year though so he boldly raised his hand and said he wanted to play. The bishopric said they would find another ward or two to combine with so they could have a full team so he could play. He immediately wished he had kept his mouth shut and just played with Heritage Park Ward again. Despite combining with two other wards, when he went to the first game, there was only three of the required five minimum players needed for a team. They borrowed a few people from other teams and had a game. After that Matt just brought his own friends from school to play. They won a few games but usually lost. Ryan coached them when he was home otherwise it was just them, I was usually the only person that came to cheer them on. Not the greatest year of Stake basketball but they had fun. He likes playing basketball for fun not competitively so he has a good time. This picture is the score when they played Heritage Park. They actually held their own pretty good up to half time. Then they got smoked.
Emilee was excited the weather was warmer than usual for February because she got to start her riding lessons back up sooner. She still loves it and looks forward to her lesson every week. There is a new horse called Artemis that is a bit of a stinker to most riders but he and Emilee get along really well so she is always happy when she gets to ride him.
If I looked back at my other posts from January I would bet that they say something to the effect that it is kind of a boring month but I love it because after the holidays I need a month of boring.
This year was not different. Relative to our usual schedule of kids activities and normal life events going on it was pretty slow. I loved it, and I needed it! There will still be some rearranging but I was able to go through each room and at least get the initial unpacking and organization done so everything is pretty functional. I did a little more decorating. Found some rugs, got a few things like and end table, bookcase and barstools. I hung up most of the pictures. I want to do another picture wall in the basement but I don’t have a solid plan in my head yet so I just keep thinking about it for now.
An usual change for me though was I got into plants. I like plants but as far as having live plants in my house I have never been interested because the few times I have been given a plant it doesn’t last to long. My sweet mom would give me starter plants after I got married and then they would die. She eventually gave up. I have just not had the desire or energy (I know it doesn’t take a ton but it requires some attention) to take care of them. Maybe now that my kids are older and a little more self sufficient I have enough band width to add some plants. So I did! I love them. They make me happy and don’t feel like a burden at all. The first one I got was a bit of an impulse buy from a store that doesn’t really have plants they just had a few randomly. I say that because so far it is the one that is struggling and I would normally think it was because I don’t really care to figure out why, but that is not the case. I think there was something in the soil or it wasn’t that healthy when I got it. I am still hopeful that it will turn around and make it but time will tell. After I got the first one I went and got a few more. Ryan took one to work and the rest I put around the house. I want to get more but I am making myself wait and not go crazy. The kids think I am a little silly but I like them. They don’t talk back or sass me either! Here are my plants I got. I repotted them and gave them all new soil and food and a nice sunny spot (or not sunny if they prefer) to grow. Three of the four are thriving and growing for sure. Crossing my fingers for the fourth but I am already way ahead of my past track record.
We had a few guests in January! Our first visitor was Sherrie. The girls stayed in Arkansas for a few days with her after New Years so she brought them back up and stayed the night with us.
A few weeks later Ryan’s best friend Mike Johnson came for a weekend. Those two are quite a pair. They love to get as much sports watching, eating, and talking in as they can whenever they get together.
It had been a bit to long since we had gotten out our Terry Family Growin’ Board and measured everyone. We got it out of storage when we moved so we measured the kids in January. Everyone had done some significant growing, Matthew hit a milestone he has been waiting on for a long time. He is the tallest in the family. He officially passed his dad in height. He is still growing so he is hoping to increase that lead by another inch or two.
Allison had two gymnastic meets in January. One at the beginning and one towards the end. The first one she had a few mess ups and wanted to just forget it. She still had some good moments but we can focus on the second one. Here are some pictures. I wish I had a parent photographer that takes amazing pictures for everyone on the team like I had for Matthew’s baseball but so far it is just my limited skills that are available. I tried to get some good action ones because we had pretty good seats at this meet.
After celebrating Grandma and Grandpa’s 50th Anniversary we had a few days of Summer left before school started. We did school shopping and back to school nights. Aaron’s birthday this year was a pretty rainy day. We decided to go see him anyways. Our original plan was to go to the temple and do baptisms that day but Matthew had some doctor appointments and was still pretty limited to being up and about a lot so we bumped that and did it with Grandpa and a friend of Allison’s later. Ryan’s brother David and his wife Jen came up to KC one night and took us to dinner.
Our house was moving along but not ready to move into yet so we stayed at our rental and started another year of school. Matthew had surgery at the end of August on his elbow. They had to reattach some tendons and bone and he was pretty out of it for a few days. Now he is working on getting back into shape for baseball in the Spring.
My sister Sherri got a big promotion at work so DeAnna and I decided to send her a congratulation gift. We settled on a Potato Parcel. It is literally a potato that we had a picture and message printed on. Can’t get more unique than that. We think she liked it.
Then school started!!! Matthew is a Junior. Allison is in 8th grade. Emilee is in 5th grade. This is the last year with one in each school. Next year will be down to only two schools for a while. It was a bit of a rough start, the girls bus driver was new and it took a bit for her to get the girls picked up and to the right school then dropped off at the right spot after school. Matthew missed some school with surgery and Dr appointments. A few weeks in we started to get into our school grove.
After our family trip to Gulf Shores this Summer the girls went to visit my parents in Florida. The girls and Matthew if he can squeeze it in like to go spend a week or two with them each Summer. This Summer the girls went together and spent a week and a half enjoying all the fun things Florida has to offer. They spent time playing with cousins, swimming, going to the zoo, a dolphin watching cruise and late night movies.
A few days after the girls got back we celebrated Allison’s birthday #13! Welcome to your teenage years Allison! She had a sleepover with her friend they went shopping. We had a family dinner with the Kansas Terry’s on Sunday. Dad and I got her a new bike but then she decided she wanted to keep using her dads bike and just get some cool accessories for it. She has been into biking lately so she wanted a phone holder, water bottle holder, and a tracking thing that tells her how far she bikes, tracks her route, tells her how hard she was peddling, things like that. She is also trying to collect a huge collection of squishmallows so she got a few more of those for her birthday as well.
She went with a chocolate cake and right before we blew out the candles she asked me to put a turtle on it. Between Lauren, Ross, and I we were able to draw a turtle on her cake with a poop emoji (Allison’s favorite emoji) for her to blow candles out. I used sparkler candles that are harder to blow out which of course she loved.
Allison is an amazing young women and I am glad I get to have her for my daughter. She is one of the most creative people I know. She is funny and has a quick wit. We were going somewhere in the car the other day and I said I needed to grab a protein bar because I didn’t eat lunch. We started driving and I opened the bar and for some reason it was half the size they usually are and looked pretty pathetic. Allison looked at it and without missing a beat said, “Looks like your protein bar didn’t eat lunch either.”
When she does something she puts 100% of her effort into it. I love watching her grow up and developing her talents and I am excited to see what she does in the next few years. Happy Birthday Allison!
Three kids and building a house can keep a person pretty busy in the Summer. As I mentioned in the last post, the girls started their Summer off with a Girl Scout Camp. Matthew started his off with High Adventure in Colorado with the other boys in our church ward his age. They went to the sand dunes and hiked those, and the mountains. They were camped right in the middle of the two. They went white water rafting one day as well. This is his third year of going. He has had a great time each year.
One of Allison’s favorite things to do is shop. She has been doing a little more babysitting lately. She is a really fun babysitter. Way better than I ever was. She always comes up with fun games and scavenger hunts and the kids she watch always have a great time. She watched Emilee and her friend Ethan a lot this Summer. This is a giant gumball machine she found on one of her shopping adventures spending her hard earned money.
Ryan and I had a few adventures in June too. We went to Las Vegas with our friends Dani and RJ. We had a pool day, exploring day and ate at some fun restaurants while we visited and enjoyed our quick weekend getaway together.
Emilee’s one wish for her Summer was to go to a horse camp. She did that at the end of June. She has been doing her regular riding lesson each week still but she wanted to have a full week of riding everyday. The last day they did a horse show for the parents to show what they learned. She had a great time. She still loves horses and hopes to get her own someday.
Another activity Emilee loves and looks forward to each and every Summer is sleeping in. She loves to sleep and would sleep until noon everyday if we let her. Dad had to wake her up one morning “early” which means before 9AM and he thought it was hilarious getting her to wake up. She wanted nothing to do with it.
Matthew kept busy with work and baseball and weight lifting after he got back from High Adventure. He went to FSY towards the end of June. It was in Warrensburg MO at the college there. He was able to room with his cousin Ethan and several of his other good friends were there. He said it was a fun time and one of his favorite parts was the testimony meeting the last night they were there. That makes me happy that he went and had a good experience.
Allison went to another girls camp at the end of June with two of her friends from school that are also in her troop. It was in Tulsa Oklahoma. I picked them up and they told me all about it on the way home. They had a mean counselor, it was ridiculously hot and the food was awful but they still had a great time together. Allison wore a swim suit that had the American flag on it and got the nick name Ms America for it. She came home with an American flag cowgirl had covered in sequence do go along with her nick name. She loved it.
Here are some random other pictures I have from this month that I’ll add to the end of this post.
If you have kids in school May is a crazy month. All the end of the year activities, awards, tests, field days, performances, and wrapping up Spring sports gets crammed into three weeks or less.
Mother’s Day was on a bit of a hectic weekend, we had baseball and softball games. This is the last year I will have one of my own kids singing to me in the Primary at church too. That is a little sad. I told Emilee to sing really loud and make my last Mother’s Day song a good one. She did. She likes to sing. Later that month when school ended and we were cleaning out back packs I found this that Emilee had made for me and forgot to give me. I am a great taxi driver. I get A LOT of practice.
Emilee tired her hand at softball again this Spring. With her glasses she did really well! Imagine that. It was a fun team of girls. They grew a lot through the season and ended up winning their tournament at the end and claiming their spot as The Blue Valley Rec 4th Grade Girls Softball Champions. After the season was over the girls challenged the parents to a game and beat us. Emilee got the, Most Improved Player award. She had a really important hit in the last season game that let them score and get into the playoffs. I think she has found a sport that she really likes and wants to continue with.
Matthew wrapped up school baseball and jumped right into Club Baseball. He has had a good season so far and is really enjoying himself. He has been hitting and fielding well. He earned his way back to leadoff hitter and is the starting short stop. He was thinking of doing football in the Fall but decided to keep focused on just baseball for now. He has grown a lot but isn’t quite big enough that he wants to go up against other people and get tackled by people who have 40+ pounds on him.
Allison made honor roll and I was able to go see her get her award. She is looking forward to 8th grade and being the leaders in the school. She is excited that she went to the same elementary school and then middle school from start to finish without switching schools. Her and her friends decided to add a Hawaiian theme to their last day of school and they all dressed up.
Her gymnastic team made it to regionals and they traveled down to Wichita to compete. Allison did really well and had a fun time. Her coach was leaving McCracken’s where Allison has been for the last 7 years. Allison decided she wanted to follow her so after Regionals we changed to Element Gymnastics. I think it will be a good fit for her. She will get a lot more one on one training.
School always gets out the Thursday before Memorial Day Weekend. For our first Summer activity we went to Arkansas and spent the weekend at Dave and Jen’s house. Matthew wasn’t able to come because he had work and baseball but the four of us had a good time. The kids love swimming with their cousins in their pool whenever they feel like it. We did an outdoor movie, games, roasted smores, did a little shopping and had a fun time visiting with everyone.
After we got back from Arkansas the girls got ready for their Girl Scout Day camp that they have gone to for the last several years. Allison is one of the youth leaders now. She likes having a little more freedom to pick what she does and spends a lot of her time with the little kids area of all the younger kids of the volunteers running the camp. She likes to do the sleepover the first night with the older girls too. She usually found Emilee once or twice throughout the day to say hello too. Dad went on Saturday and was a leader for Emilee’s group. She loved having him there. Allison didn’t go the last day of camp because she had something else going on. They handed out awards on the last day and Allison ended up winning “Best Swap” that year (it is a trinket each girl makes to trade with other girls and they pin them on their hats) Emilee went up and accepted the award for her since she was gone.
I thought I already mentioned this but its pretty big so I will again. After 3+ years, and countless false promises of “one more month” Allison finally got her braces off! She was and still is pretty excited. Now we have the constant battle of getting her to wear her retainers. 🤣🤣
We thought this year might creep by slowly while we wait for our house to be built. Sometimes it does seem like it is taking forever but overall it does seem to be flying by. Once Spring Break was over and it is the 8 week stretch until school is out for the Summer it really seems to fly.
It was a cold Spring but there were a few nights in April we were able to light up the fire pit and make some smore’s in the back yard. Mmmmm we all love a good smore.
Emilee was selected as the Student of the Month which they now call Leader of the Month. Luckily they awarded it on a Friday so I was able to watch her get it. They do a little intro about the person before they say who it is. They said a lot of nice things about her- she helps others, gets her work done, is kind, loves to read, is a good listener. As soon as they said this person loves horses and knows all kinds of facts about horses everyone knew the teacher was talking about Emilee.
Our church had a Prom Night. Matthew’s high school only lets upper classmen go to the prom. Or you can be invited to the prom by an upper classmen. Matthew didn’t go to the school prom. When the church said they were having a stake prom I asked him no less than 12 times if he and his friends were going to get a group together and go to the dance several months, and weeks in advance. You don’t have to dress formal but a lot of people do. He told me each of those 12 times that he was not planning on doing that. The day of the prom he texted me from school to tell me that he and a group of kids were going to go to prom and he was taking Campbell.🤦♀️ At least he had given her a few more days notice than he did me so she was able to find a dress and Matthew just wore his church clothes, no tux. They both had baseball/softball practice until 6:30 so they missed dinner and ended up just going to the dance. After the dance they had an after party were they are supposed to dress up as something together. They changed back into their baseball/softball uniforms and went together like that. I got no group pictures. They had a fun night. That is is the difference between a boy and girl. Boys are zero planning time, you have to drag details out of them and beg other moms for pictures. Girls want 12 outfit options, tell you all the tea and have pictures of every second of the night. Is it not adorable that they both were the number 14?!
Allison was busy doing track everyday after school in March and April. She decided to do the pole vault, discus and shot put. She did a lot of running and got in good shape. The coaches didn’t do much coaching for her events so it was more of a figure it out on your own thing. We were proud of her for trying something new and putting all the effort she put into her practices and meets. I tried to go running with her a few times. I am a tread mill runner IF I run- I like the AC on a fan in my face and stopping exactly where I started as soon as I am done. She kicked my but when we would run together. She loved the social part of it and overall had a good time. She ended the season not sure if she wanted to do it again. If she does she wants to drop shot put and discus and do the high jump instead. If she decides to do it again we will have to see about finding her a private coach to teach her the pole vault and high jump.
Emilee is trying her hand at softball again this Spring. So far it is going 100% better just for the fact that she has glasses now and can see the ball. She joined her bestie Reese’s team and it is a good fit for her. She has improved a lot in catching, throwing and hitting. We all try and help her practice batting and playing catch at home. Hopefully she sticks with it for a few more years.
Matthew made the JV baseball team. They had a really good season. A little more than half way through the season he was moved to practicing with the varsity team and going to all their games. He still played JV games but then he would go to all the varsity games and warm up with them and pinch run for them a few times. The Varsity team went to State he got to go with them and had a great experience. They lost their first game and were out but still had fun. He is hoping to get to go again his Junior and/or Senior year when he is a full time varsity player. He has grown a bit and has a little more strength behind his swing and throw so he is really enjoying himself when he plays now. It is fun to watch him.
Seventh grade is the year the kids can start doing all the extracurricular activities and playing in school sport. Allison has been trying to squeeze in as many of those activities as she can. I love that she is so willing to try new things.
Allison decided before Christmas Break that she wanted to be in the school play. Tryouts were first thing in January. She was cast as Spy #1. The first few days of practice they read through the play and her part wasn’t really a part so she decided to switch to the stage crew instead. About a week later the director sent an email out that said she needed someone to play the dead body because the person that was doing it was no longer able to do it. Allison replied back and was soon the dead body for the play. She played a once rich but recently destitute millionaire that was murdered. She laid dead on the couch for the entire play while the rest of the characters tried to figure out who the killer was. At the very end she stands up and acts out what happened when she was killed for about 10 seconds then sits on the couch again. I didn’t see her move a muscle or crack a smile the entire 1 hour and 45 minute play. She did a great job and said she had a lot of fun and enjoyed being in the play. I think she will do it again next year.
The same week of Allison’s play performance, she had an orchestra concert too. Here are the two songs she played. She is third up from the bottom of third row in from the right.
Allison talked me into going on a run with her one morning in March. We ended up at HyVee and decided to get a bunch of fruits that we had never tried before. It was one of Allison’s bucket item lists. So we picked out a few and and found enough other things to get that we called Matthew and he came and picked us up instead of running home with a bunch of groceries.😊 We liked the dragon fruit the best. The golden berries and the pomelo were ok. The kuwanon was gross. The activity was priceless. Allison absolutely loved it. Everyone else tried them too- except Emilee refused to try all of them except the golden berries and dragon fruit.
January was a typical January. Kind of slow. Just the way I like it so we can recover and relax from the busy months before. By the end of January baseball, horse lessons, piano, gymnastics were all up and going. We had lots of things going on each weekend so Ryan and I would divide and concur the best that we could.
Like he does each year, Grandpa Terry started off one of the weekends in January celebrating his birthday. He turned 71. We told him we would make or get any food he wanted for his dinner and strongly hinted at BBQ. He said he wanted to go with easy to get, eat, and clean up so he picked pizza. After asking him 5 times to make sure he really didn’t want BBQ we picked up some pizza (we made sure one had every topping they offer on it just for Grandpa) and we celebrated with dinner followed by cake. His boys and his two oldest grandsons took him on an axe throwing adventure. They all felt very manly and proud of themselves when they got back. Ethan was concerned about not being able to throw the axe far enough and ended up being the best of them at it. Rhonda made a chocolate cake and a cherry cheesecake for him. In true pre-covid fashion we put candles on the cake and he blew them all out. I am all for blowing out candles but I think taking a piece for the birthday person and putting the candles on just their piece to spit on when they blow out is more my style. However, I am often overruled though and called a germ-a-phob or fun hater. All in all I think Grandpa had a fun birthday.
The next day was another big day. Ryan’s biological mom Sherrie, her husband Dave, daughter Genevieve and her son Eric came up to finally meet Rhonda and Roger in person. It has been a highly anticipated meeting since we found Sherrie two years ago. Ryan was a nervous wreck all week. He was really worried Rhonda would change her mind or hurl back handed ‘compliments’ or barely veiled insults when she met Sherrie. The day before they came, Rhonda decided she wanted to call Sherrie and talk with her over the phone first. They said they ended up talking for three hours and it was a great conversation. That put Ryan at ease a little bit and when they arrived in person it went pretty well. We all sat around and talked for a bit then Rhonda and Sherrie kind of split off and talked and looked at photos. Gen and Dave talked with the rest of us and Eric jumped right in to play with Emilee and Jovee. Rhonda and Sherrie just kept talking. Everyone else went to Top Golf and played games. Rhonda told me afterwards that she was really glad she finally met her and she really liked Sherrie. She said she felt like she was talking with a long lost friend. Ryan and I were very happy that they got along and made a friend in each other.
Instead of going golfing with everyone, Allison and I headed to Salina Kansas for a gymnastic tournament. She did a pretty good job. She placed 9th overall, and had one of her best bar routines yet. She is still loving gymnastics. We are proud of her for how hard she works and how much effort she puts into it. Right when we arrived it started snowing so by the time we left a few hours later there was a pretty good snow storm. We had to go a little slower but we were still able to make it home.
We got to go watch Allison play her cello in the school concert before Christmas. This is the second year she has played and she is pretty good. Imagine how good she would be if she practiced!! It was nice to hear her play. Grandma and Grandpa were able to come watch too. Enjoy!
Allison ended up deciding she liked wrestling. It is a really quick and intense season but she liked it. She won her very first match of the season then had a bit of a rough patch then finished the season by winning her weight division in her last match. She is planning on wrestling next year too.
As she was finishing wrestling she was also getting ready for her first gymnastic meet of the season. The season always starts off with the Chalk Up Meet. She started off pretty good. Her scores were Beam: 8.4 Floor: 8.8 Bars: 8.05 Vault: 8.8.
Allison is going to try out for the play next semester. I am so impressed and proud that she is willing to try so many different things. She is our social little butterfly. She is a good friend too. One of her friends had to put her dog down so Allison and another friend in their group got a little gift for her and surprised her by dropping it off with a little song and dance they made up. They did a good job cheering her up.
She doesn’t like to draw attention to it but Allison has a big loving heart. I was watching her the other day. She is a beautiful, caring, loving, talented, artistic, smart girl. She is becoming a kind young women. I am excited to see how she continues to grow and develop and what she decides to do with her life. She has a bright future ahead of her.
One of the things I admire about Allison is she is willing to try new things. If she sees something that interests her she jumps right in and gives it a try. At the end of last year she mentioned that she wanted to try wrestling next year. When it came time to sign up she was all over it. No one in our family wrestles and knows much about wrestling. It is a really fast intense season. About 6 weeks long. It takes a lot of time and energy and she says she is really liking it. When we watch her at her meets we have no idea what is going on as far as points but we still cheer her on and we know if she pins someone or she gets pinned that is the match. We learn a little more each time. The video of her wrestling starts after two rounds that had already timed out. Both the girls were getting pretty tired. Allison won the battle of grit. This is her first pin in a match.
Allison went to the Fall dance at school with a few of her friends this year. There wasn’t a lot of dancing but there was a lot of socializing. She thought it was great.
She is continuing with the Orchestra this year as well. The middle school went to the high school and they did a joint concert together for Halloween. They could dress up if they wanted. They are getting good enough now that it is really enjoyable to listen to them play. In the video Alison is right in the center of the screen. She is the second on in on her row.
For one of her Young Women Activities we went to the Garmin building and the girls got to fly a flight simulator. Allison crashed when it was her turn.
The other day when I was making dinner Allison came home and gave me a hug then asked if I could break a $5 bill for her. I found my purse and gave her the requested 4 one dollar bills and 4 quarters. She then put $2.50 on the counter and told me that was my share then started to head outside. I told her to come back and explain when she was talking about. She said that she had sold a bag of chocolate chips to someone at school for $5. Since the bag only cost $3 (I do remember her asking me how much I spent on a bag of chocolate chips a day or so previously) she had made $2 and since she used my chocolate chips she split the money with me.
This girl and her ways of coming up with how to make a dollar continue to amaze me. Between her work ethic, drive, creativity, and love of money she will take care of herself just fine. She has already run a successful slime and key chain business. Also her dog walking business. She is currently trying to convince the gym she does gymnastics at to hire her to help do odd jobs around the gym. Meanwhile, Matthew asked two companies for an application, doesn’t fill them out or turn them in and acts like he has done all he possibly can to get a job but there aren’t any available.
Anyway, back to my share of the chocolate chip profit. I told her that I love her ability to come up with ways to make money but while she did make a two dollar profit, as she did not buy the chips in the first place, instead of my share being $2.50 it would actually be $4. She was not as excited about that but followed the math. I told her I would split it with her this time but to stop selling my groceries. Funny girl.
As is always does, Summer eventually came to an end. Emilee and Allison started school on a Wednesday. Matthew started the next day.
Emilee is in 4th Grade
Allison is in 7th Grade.
Matthew is in 10th Grade.
A few weeks after Emilee got back it was Matthew and Allison’s turn to go to grandma and grandpa Jones’. They flew out together. Matthew is old enough that he can be her companion. This was also Matthew’s first time going. He only stayed a week because he had baseball. He had a very fun time. He told me to book him a trip to Grandma’s for next Summer when he got home.
Some of the highlights he has mentioned is how good grandma’s baking is. Her ginger snap and chocolate chip cookies were definitely a favorite. Being able to walk out the door and go fishing was a fun perk. Beating Sherri at pickle ball has been mentioned a few times. The beach, aquarium, zoo, lots of swimming, games, and movies. Grandma kept him busy. He was very happy to get out of Kansas and have a fun trip for the Summer. They also watched some home videos and Matthew sent this one to me. I remember filming this. Cute little stinker.
There was a tussle over who got the bed. It is a queen bed and could have been easily shared. Matthew suggested he have it for the week he was there and Allison have it for the week she stayed after he left. She said, “That is fair but that’s not how it’s going to go.” They shared the bed the first night, then Allison was demoted to the air mattress.
When he came back grandma was able to walk him to the shuttle then he was on his own. He found security and made it through (he did have his fishing pliers confiscated) then made it to the gate. Then it poured rain for a few hours and delayed his flight but he made it home. I picked him up in the passenger pick up area. He was pretty proud of himself for flying half way across the country all by himself.
Allison stayed to have one more week with Grandma after Matthew left. She was excited to upgrade back to the bed from the air mattress. Last Summer when she was there Grandma got her hooked on the Hallmark Mystery Channel so she was excited to catch up on that with her. She was there over her birthday this year. Grandma made her a chocolate cake. Matthew took a few gifts for her in his suitcase from us and left them for her to open. She had one to open when she got home too. They went bowling and swimming at Sherri’s for her birthday. Grandma made her a chocolate cake.
Allison’s gymnastic team qualified to participate in the AAU National competition this year! She was pretty excited! It changes locations every year, this year it was in Springfield, Illinois-home of Abraham Lincoln.
It was a quick trip but we had a fun time together. After I finished work on Thursday Allison and I drove to Springfield. It was about a 5 hour drive. We ate lots of snacks and sang songs at the top of our lungs to pass the time. The last hour of the drive we saw thousands of fire flies along the road. A lot of them hit the car window too. We new it was a fire fly because the smear they made on the window glowed just like they did for about a minute after it got squashed on the window.
We made it to our hotel and got settled in. Allison had a little excitement to burn off so we explored the hotel and then she bounced all over the bed for a bit. We had to be at the convention center by 7:45 the next morning. We woke up early and made it to breakfast. They had potato squares which are one of Allison’s favorite so she took that as a good sign for the day.
We got to the convention center and once we found her coach and team mate I went and found a good seat. She did a great job! I enjoy watching her compete.
She is the Missouri Valley group when they announce where people are from.
Her scores for her events were;
Bars:8.825
Beam:8.8
Vault:8.65
Floor 9.15.
For her division she ended up placing 10th overall and took 7th on the floor. She messed up a little bit on the last run of her floor routine so she was surprised at her score a little bit. That is why you always show confidence!
After her competition and awards we headed back home. Allison spotted a Pizza Ranch Buffet- one of her favorites- so we stopped there for lunch on our way home. It was good but put me in a carb coma so I had to pull over and take a 30 minute cat nap. Allison took embarrassing videos and pictures of me while I slept.
We switched Emilee to a new barn for her riding lessons in March. She seems to be really liking the new place. She has been progressing a lot. For the school talent show at the end of the year she asked me to take a video of her at her riding lesson to show for the talent show.
Emilee also played volleyball again this Spring. She asked to do it and was excited to go to practices and games. For all other sports besides horse riding we have had to make her ‘just try it’ and she has been very glad when it is over. She did great this season, her last game she served the maximum times (5) and scored then they have to give the ball to the other team. She was pretty excited about that.
Allison had her AAU gymnastics meet in Manhattan Kansas. She did really well. The team ended up qualifying to go to the National AAU meet in Illinois in July. She is pretty excited about it. Ryan and I are happy for her that she enjoys gymnastics and she is doing well at it and continuing to improve.
https://youtube.com/shorts/4zZTG2EJAEI
https://youtube.com/shorts/-m4L6Av-82M
Matthew just finished up his Freshman year on the baseball team. He was a really good bat this season. He played mostly 2nd or short when he was on defense. He did a good job and his coach seemed pleased with him. There last game of the season was rained out which was a bummer. He is looking forward to his season with his club team over the Summer.
There was a YM basketball tournament for our Stake. The boys all had a great time. Matthew loved it. Our ward had two teams. The team Matthew was on ended up making it to the final game and winning the tournament. Matthew was given the MVP award for giving all out effort all the time. They even let them cut the net down which was pretty fun for them.
I have some talented children. I love watching all my kids in their activities. I am glad they are taking the opportunities to improve themselves and work hard at something they enjoy.
Allison: I took a kiwi to school today for my snack.
Mom: That is a healthy snack. Was is hard to eat?
Allison: No, I got a plastic knife from the cafeteria to cut it when I ate it. I didn’t want it to get smashed in my backpack so I carried it around in my hand all morning.
Mom: (silently grateful she had the foresight to not take a real knife no school) Maybe next time cut it up first then you can leave it in a container in your locker or backpack. (Already know she is going to tell me she doesn’t care about “doing it the easy way”)
Allison: I don’t care if I have to cut it at school. People kept asking me what it was. Who doesn’t know what a kiwi is?! I put it on my desk in science and I had a bunch of people convinced it was a baby coconut. Then Mr. Hines comes over and tells everyone, “That is a kiwi, baby coconuts are not a thing. It has a sticker on it that says KIWI.” Then he walked off.
Mom: So now everyone knows what a kiwi is.
Allison: No. When he walked away, I told them kiwi is Spanish for baby coconut. Pretty sure at least three people believed me
Mom: 🤦🏻♀️
Another day…
Allison: Mom, do you know what a walk up song is? Like in baseball when the batter walks up he picks the song?
Mom: Yes, I know what a walk up song is.
Allison: Well, they don’t have those in gymnastics so I decided I wanted one for when I walk into my classes at school. The past couple days I have played one for most of my classes when I walk in.
Mom: Oh…ok. So what song do play?
Allison: The Imperial March. Darth Vadar’s theme song.
Then proceeds to laugh her head off.🤦♀️
This next picture is from a while ago, I came across it in my pictures the other day. Allison is known to leave various types of notes on her door depending on her mood. I will leave it up to the reader to guess her mood for this one.
Allison has been lobbying for a friend for Peanut for the last year or so. She has done lots of research on why they need a friend and pleaded her case many times. She even wrote a report titled, Why We Should Get Another Guinea Pig, and sent it to Ryan. A few weeks ago she got lucky and the stars aligned when she asked an we had a moment of weakness so we went to the store and she picked out a friend for Peanut.
He is a cute little bugger. Over the course of a week he had many names but she finally settled on Milo. He was only a few months old so he is pretty small. Peanut seemed to like him right away. They got along pretty well from the start. It has been about a month since we got him and they are buddies for life now. Now Emilee thinks she needs one too.
We all survived Allison’s favorite day of the year without to much damage. She pulled a few pranks on everyone but Matthew seemed to be the focus of most of her pranks.
She did the usual tape over the faucets, saran wrap across doorways, and creepy pictures strategically placed around the house to startle you when you least expect it.
Matthew said he woke up to Allison sneaking around his room at 4 in the morning. He didn’t care enough to worry to much about it then. When he turned his fan on and confetti flew everywhere he thought that was it. When he got to school he turned on his laptop and found this waiting for him.
She is a funny girl. I know I am forgetting a few of her pranks too. A few days later, I was cleaning out the fridge and found one that she attempted but then forgot about. I was grateful that she at least put the stapler in a bag first before submerging it in Jello.
Allison has had a lot going on this month. She just finished a big project for school and did the presentation. They did a wax museum and she presented the gymnast Gabby Douglas. This was the same project I helped edit. She did a great job presenting and making her poster.
She went to the zoo with the McDonald family a bit ago. Lori sent me some cute pictures.
This last picture made me smile. This is a very Allison thing to do. We went to the dentist the other morning and while we were waiting for her to go back I looked down at her leg and noticed she had turned to of the moles on her leg into a smiley face.
Our church has a Bishop Youth Discussion (BYD) about once a month for the teenagers in the ward. They have different topics each month. This past month was the first one that Allison and Matthew had gone to together. They leader guiding the discussion had several of the youth come up front. He told each of them to write something down on a piece of paper that someone else would have to do. Of course they all wrote down something silly or embarrassing for whoever ended up with their paper to do. Allison was one of the kids selected and on her paper she wrote, “Confess your love to Matthew Terry.” Once everyone had written something down, their papers were collected and they read a scripture. Neither one of my stinkers can remember what the scripture was but the message was-treat people the way you want to be treated and don’t ask others to do things that you wouldn’t be willing to do yourself. The leader then returned each of the notes to the person that had written it and told them they got to do whatever they had put on it. Honestly, I couldn’t have picked a much better object lesson for Allison to participate it. Someone recorded it for me and sent me the video. I will admit it brought me some smug satisfaction. Allison (and Matthew) were good sports.
Allison was given the assignment of writing a paper on Gabby Douglas for school. In class they switched papers and peer edited it for each other. They were given a specific form with items to check and give feed back on the paper they edited. Allison was sick this week and wasn’t able to get her paper edited, so her teacher suggested she have a parent edit it and fill out the review form. Ryan was out of town so she asked if I would edit it for her. In hind sight I should have had Matthew do it but I wasn’t smart enough to come up with that at the time. Allison has a lot of amazing strengths and talents. She is a very smart girl. She has been working really hard on her moodiness and responding to emotions on the same level as the person she is talking with (instead of always responding with a 10).
In general we have been getting along a lot better. So much better that I completely forgot that one of Allison’s many strengths is not taking constructive criticism well. Especially from her mother.
She left me in my room with her computer and the review sheet and I started editing. I followed the review sheet and highlighted, noted and marked whatever it told me to do. After about 5 minutes had passed Allison returned to get her paper. I told her I wasn’t done yet. She left and came back 5 minutes later. I still wasn’t done. She looked over my shoulder and asked what could be taking so long. When she saw that I had actually made edits to her paper (that she apparently thought was unimprovable) she show cased another one of her talents. She is pretty incredible at quick thinking and has a quick wit to match. Unfortunately, she sometimes uses this ability to ring someone up and down on a level that makes you feel like it was scripted for a movie if she feels wronged. Looking back now it was comical, at the time not so much. She was truly flabbergasted that I could have found anything wrong with her paper beyond an accidental grammar error. Allison also has an incredible way of pushing my buttons and one of my weaknesses is that I let her. We both started arguing and ended with me telling her to edit her own paper, her taking her computer and storming out and yelling, “All you had to do was put your name on the editing sheet-THAT IS IT- three seconds to do something and you screwed it all up!”
A few hours later she came and found me and with the enormous amount of grit and determination Allison has coursing through every cell in her body she swallowed her pride and told me, “I changed some of the things back and ignored most of your suggestions. BUT you actually did have some good corrections that I kept. Thank you for editing my paper. Oh, and sorry for yelling at you.”
I picked my jaw up off the floor and gave her a hug. Not to long ago this would have gone a totally different way and been dragged out for days. While I could have tweaked her apology a little, the fact that she apologized on her own without any prompting is a big step. Huge steps have been made.
These two besties are just like sisters. Reese and Emilee were due within a few days of each other but Emilee came early so they are two weeks apart. They have been besties since then. They went to pre-school together but are in different school districts. They see each other at church and church activities and take riding lessons together and squeeze in as much play time as they can in between. They both love horses and talk about them for hours when they play. They both have similar interests in clothes (they grab the first thing they touch in the drawer regardless of if it matches or not) hairstyles (brush it just long enough to get it in a pony tail) and sense of adventure (they always climb, run, jump or fling themselves in, up, or down whatever they can). They are both the youngest and are often left hanging out together on Friday or Saturday nights while everyone else is off doing things with friends and their parents go out to dinner together. They are easy to have together and fun to watch. This picture is from the other day when they were at our house and decided they would practice putting ponytails in each others hair.
Allison has a very witty sense of humor that catches me off guard sometimes. She loves to make people laugh when she isn’t being a grump she is fun to joke around with. A few months ago I got a little to attached to a stupid farm game on my phone. The kids took notice and gave me a hard time about spending my time on something else besides them. Allison is also a very crafty and artistic person. She started making funny stories or pictures with stick figures. I am not very artistically gifted so I was impressed at how funny and detailed she could be with just stick figure drawings. One morning I found this funny little picture left for me next to my sink in the bathroom. It made me chuckle.
As mentioned a little earlier in this post, Emilee doesn’t concern herself to much with looks when getting dressed. Her first priority is comfort. Last week she attempted to add a functionality component to her Sunday outfit. Luckily her dad caught her before getting to church. When he asked her why she was wearing what she was wearing, she logically explained, “I put my clothes on that I want to wear after church under my church clothes so I can change faster when I get home.” When the look on her dads face looked like it was heading towards “I don’t think so” she quickly added, “And it keeps me warm.” He told her to trade her socks and pants for tights and get in the car to go.
Emilee is making the blog a lot this week. Another quirk of Emilee’s is her love of popcorn. Emilee is a ridiculously picky eater and has a HUGE sweet tooth so popcorn is one of her more healthy choices of snack. It also falls into the category of easy and fast for her to make by herself. Over time her love of popcorn has gotten to the point that she will eat nothing else if we don’t monitor or limit her popcorn intake. She eats all of the popcorn too, kernels included. I don’t know how she hasn’t cracked half her teeth chomping the un-popped corn. This popcorn trait is inherited from her dad. He likes his burned, she will eat it burned but prefers it not. Anyway, I digress. Most days when Ryan gets home Emilee has done her chores and home work and whatever else she needs to get done so she has popped herself a bag of popcorn and is sitting down to enjoy it while watching a show. He of course wants to have some and reaches for a handful. She turns into the equivalent of a dog that has possessive food issues. It got to the point that it was causing contentions between the two of them and we had to talk with Emilee about realizing there is plenty of popcorn to share. So far she doesn’t agree there is enough. So, the other day we were watching a movie together. Emilee popped some popcorn and came to snuggle me. A bit into the movie I told her thanks for sharing her popcorn with me and she was doing a good job at sharing. We continued watching and eating. I happened to glance over and realized that Emilee had been mining our popcorn the whole time! She had taken out all the butter pieces and put them in a separate pile on the other side of me so she could eat them after she ate what she left in the bowl ‘to share’ with me. Little stinker!
Allison had her second to last meet for this season, this month. She had her best meet yet! She placed first in her division on bar and floor, second on vault, third on beam. She won 1st place All Around for her division.
It was really fun to watch her and see her excitement at doing well. She puts a lot of time and effort into gymnastics and it is fun to see her enjoying it. She has one last meet at the end of this month. It is in Manhattan Kansas and it is a big event with multiple areas for each event happening at the same time. She is pretty excited.
In our church the year you turn twelve you graduate primary and move to the youth program. Allison started Young Women’s. Each class has a presidency to help plan and run the activities. She is the secretary for her class right now. Allison loves growing up and being in charge of things so she is loving it. Most of their activities are on Tuesday night and she has gymnastics that night, so for now she won’t be able to go to a lot of them. She is still enjoying planning and going to the ones that aren’t on Tuesday’s.
The year they turn twelve is also the year they are old enough to go to the temple and do baptisms. She was able to go for the first time last week. It is fun to see her growing up and getting more responsibilities.
Matthew is turning 16 this year so he moves up to the Priest Quorum in our church. That means one of his new responsibilities is to bless the sacrament on Sunday. He did it for the first time a few weeks ago and his dad and grandpa did it with him. It was cool to see three generations blessing the sacrament together.
Allison is doing really well in school. Her goal it to work on her time management which makes me very happy. She is a person that evaluates herself and while she might not admit a mistake or shortfall, she makes a conscious effort to change or develop habits that she wants to work on.
In one of her classes they are making a large marble chute on a board. She asked me if I new which one was hers. All but one of them was contained to the board they were given to attach it to. One of them had extensions all over and was only on the board when she wanted to cross over to the other side. I guessed the least contained design and was right. Allison doesn’t like to be contained and that applies to all aspects of her life.
When I took some things into Emilee’s room the other day I found this note on the bathroom door that they share. It has been a while since I have found an Allison note. It made me chuckle. I especially love the ‘probably’ in parenthesis under “I WILL”. The two of them are working out some boundary/sharing issues with their shared bathroom.
Allison had another gymnastic meet this month. Her team took 1st place. She got her personal best in two events. She got a 9.3 on her floor and vault routine. She is progressing in all of her events and doing well. It is fun to watch her improve.
Well, unlike last year school started one the original day it was supposed to. That was a plus. To make a long story short our school district said it was up to parents if their kids wore masks or not. I think that is a great idea because 1-they are my kids and I should be the one making decisions for them. 2- there is no mask mandate anywhere in our entire county right now. 3-Despite the news and politicians making it look like people are dropping dead in the streets and hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID patients, its not. One hospital (ironically Children’s Mercy) has made a public post TWICE saying they are not full and have very few COVID patients. However, the Johnson County Board of County Commissioners decided they know better (despite ZERO children’s deaths in our county and very low infection rates for children since all this started in March 2020) and made an order requiring all K-6th grade students to wear a mask. Our school board found a way around it by providing a mask exemption form for parents and/or doctors to sign but it has caused quite a tizzy. It is all kinds of crazy. The world and people are getting crazier everyday. But my kids are back in school, mine have the option to wear a mask ONLY if they want and unlike the other districts around us they did not have to define their sexuality and declare their pronouns the first day of school. 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
Emilee is in 3rd Grade. She has the same teacher Allison had in 3rd grade but her name is different because she got married. Mrs. Dechant. She is a great teacher and even though Emilee isn’t a huge fan of school I hope she will have a good year. I need to work on raising my expectations for her and helping her out of the “youngest child please do everything for me” funk.
Allison is in 6th grade and is ready to conquer it in a blaze of glory. There is a lot of cello players this year and they tried to persuade some kids to switch but she wouldn’t budge. She has been waiting a year to get to learn to play the cello and be an “Orch Dork”. She has a lot of classes with her friends and has organized and re-organized her locker multiple times a day since school started three days ago. Her friends and her make towel tents for each other to change in for PE and she can get seconds at lunch if she wants. Other than her mom making her ride the bus instead of personally delivering her to the front of the school each morning, she is loving life. If Allison is happy, the rest of us are even more happy. Doing the work won’t be a problem for her. Staying on top of things herself and being responsible will be her mountain to over come. She can do it!
Matthew started 9th grade this year, making it our first of many years to have a kid in each school. He got the classes he wanted but doesn’t have any close friends in any of them. He sees his besties in the hall and in a few weeks at lunch when they switch to the open hour lunch. He is a little bummed about that but his dad and I are encouraging him to meet new people. Good new people. So far he has a very good track record of picking friends that are good people and steering clear of the ones that aren’t as nice. He is starting to get some height going so that is exciting for him and he is hoping to bulk up a bit with weights as a class this year. His teenage laziness is effecting his motivation levels for school but he has always been good at staying up with assignments and managing it on his own. He told me he was looking forward to his retirement the other day. I rolled my eyes and told him to enjoy the phase he is at in life now. He takes drivers education soon and as soon as he is 15 he can drive by himself in a car to and from school if needed. He does have the slight problem of not having a car yet. They school had a gas leak 20 minutes after it started on the first day and everyone had to evacuate for an hour and a half but since then it has been pretty low key at the high school.
To help you remember, last year Allison brought me the plan for her birthday party she wanted to have when she turned 10 a few weeks before so I had plenty of time to prepare. Her original party spanned several days and two nights with several outings planned each day. After some negotiating we chiseled it down to a full 24 hour party with two outings, and just one night of sleeping over.
Usually we do a bigger party every other year and then keep it to a little smaller family party in between with a little bigger present. Allison came to me with her birthday brainstorming before getting to into her planning to determine what I considered a ‘big party’ to be. I believe she clarified by saying, “What is the number of days difference to you for a big party or a small party?” She is a funny girl. I told to keep it small and she would get some cash for her present. Nothing motivates Allison more than cash money.
She was happy to oblige and she helped me plan a pool party with a few friends. They ate pizza, opened presents, had a silly string fight, swam while listening to music, then everyone went home. Except for Leah, she spent the night. I think it was a very successful birthday for her. The next day we went to a few stores to release some of the heat from Allison’s pockets because she had money burning a hole in them. She added to her pop it and fidget collection that is getting pretty large.
We had a family dinner with local Terry’s on Sunday as well, which she loved. She is now 11. Going to be starting 6th grade and ready to take on the next year of her life. Happy Birthday Allison!
This girl keeps our life from being dull. Allison just started 6th grade this year and she is loving it. She is one step closer to being an adult which she has been looking forward to since she was 2 years old. Allison sees the world differently then the rest of us. She is creative and smart and keeps us on our toes.
At the end of last year we had her tested and moved to a more advanced Math class. Her brain loves math and she incorporates it into anything she does from planning her day to doing the dishes. She is learning the cello this year in orchestra. She is still doing gymnastics and moved up to level six this summer.
She can be one of the wittiest and funniest people I know, or one of the grumpiest. Whatever emotion she is feeling is level 10. There is no lower gear for her. For a while it seemed like her and I just butted heads constantly but I see more and more of Allison’s pleasant and reasonable side lately.
Allison loves a peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich. She is my only kiddo that will eat a fruit or vegetable without any prompting-just because she likes them. She is amazing at making cookies and brownies. She usually keeps our house stocked with them, which is awesome. She has a tough outer shell but her inside is sweet and caring and very thoughtful. When we are driving around if we see any cat or dog without a leash on-even if it is most likely in it’s own yard-she wants to stop the car immediately and save it from whatever it needs to be ‘rescued’ from. She is very responsible when she wants to be. She takes care of Peanut her guinea pig everyday without any reminding. When we go out of town she arranges for someone to take care of him and leaves them copious amounts of notes on the proper way to feed him.
Crafting is another thing Allison enjoys doing. She is often decorating or creating some art for her room (or Emilee’s if it doesn’t meet her standards when she is done 😂) If I have something I need to make or get ready for Primary she is always willing to help and does a great job at it.
It is a treat to watch her grow up. Allison will be a mountain mover in whatever she decides to invest her time and energy in.
Our 2021 Summer has officially begun. This will definitely be remembered as one of the weirdest school years ever I am sure. Of the three big school districts around our area, I am glad our kids were in the district we were in. They handled COVID the best as far as keeping kids in school as much as possible and getting things back to normal as quickly as possible. There was a lot of frustrations. Matthew was doing school virtually from home almost half the year and his grades and psyche struggled a lot because of it. The girls principal was ridiculous before COVID and used this as an opportunity to control and regulate EVERYTHING she could possibly think of. Compared to other districts I am glad I was in the one we were in though. I hope next year we can put all this behind us and have a good year.
Emilee finished 2nd grade this year. She had Mrs. Trimble. Allison also had this teacher and I specifically requested Emilee NOT have her. As I mentioned earlier though they have a special principal and her and I are not…fans of each other. Anyway, despite having a teacher that doesn’t seem to like kids or teaching, Emilee made it through the year without her anxiety getting to out of control. We were able to help curb her stress in the morning before going to school with a straight up bribe. A dollar each day she was able to not panic and cry about going to school the day night or morning before school. Best dollars I ever spent. The last week of school I went to a nail appointment and guess who I ran into?! Mrs. Trimble getting her nails done in the middle of a school day because she “just had to take a break from it all.” She didn’t see me, I just overheard her talking to the person doing her nails. I digress though. Emilee is done with second grade and is looking forward to 3rd!
Allison finished 5th grade this year and is moving onto middle school next year! The dollar bribe worked so well with Emilee I bribed Allison a dollar each day that she got up in the morning and ready and made it to the bus on time without blowing up on anyone. We had a 50/50 percent success rate but I will still count it as a win. As per usual Allison had a love/hate relationship with her teacher, Mrs. Brown. I liked her though and thought she understood Allison pretty well. She also helped us realize that Allison was literally ‘gating’ her performance instead of performing at her top potential. She talked with us about this and we ended up getting her tested and she is now in the gifted program for math, science, and reading which I think will improve Allison’s attitude toward school a lot as she will not be bored out of her mind anymore. We had several meetings and talks with teachers and counselors (oddly never the principal) and were able to get her evaluated without her knowing-and purposefully sabotaging herself. After the fact, when we were discussing all of this with Allison and trying to explain what the phrase ‘shooting ones self in the foot’ means, I would say we didn’t get a full representation of her capabilities but enough that she is now on the school radar and we can challenge her better. I am hoping she will thrive in middle school with a little more freedom and more variety to her day. She is looking forward to it a lot.
Matthew finished 8th grade this year and will be starting his first year of high school next year! Between mask requirements for school sports, and breaking his leg Matthew didn’t play any school sports this year- which is very unusual for him. Luckily he still had baseball and basketball outside of school (before he broke his leg) but he is excited to be able to be more involved next year. Despite COVID changes and no matter how ridiculous they got at times, he was able to finish the year on a positive note. I am nervous and excited for him to start high school. He is a good boy. If I can help guide him through the next 4 years of his life without huge mistakes or permanent scars and a strong testimony of Christ I will be a happy momma.
Peanut took a trip to the vet this week. Allison was concerned with his foot and thought his belly was bothering him so I appeased her by taking him in for a checkup. He is doing about as great as can be expected for a guinea pig. The Doctor (who ironically is extremly allergic to guinea pigs) said she is doing a great job at taking care of him. They trimmed his nails while we were there to which I appreciated as Peanuts current nail trimmer.
She rewarded him with a new enclosure in his cage to burrow in. The old one was made of plastic. The new one is made of wood so he can snuggle in it and chew on it. He is a well loved Guinea Pig.
Allison had her first of three meets this past weekend. Each gymnast is only allowed to bring two people so she invited me and Grandpa. It was in Blue Springs which is about 50 minutes away and it was snowing so it was an exciting drive to and from. Grandpa wanted to drive but I insisted so his blood pressure was a little high while we were in the car but we all survived. It was nice to have his company while we watched Allison do her events.
She took 10th in the whole meet overall, 6th on the floor routine. She did really good on the Vault and Uneven bars as well. The beam was a bit of a struggle for her this time, she fell off twice but she has another meet in a few weeks and is looking forward to getting a better score on that.
We went to dinner afterwards at Culver’s and Grandpa got us all a yummy bacon cheeseburger.
We got back Allison’s team gymnastic pictures. She has the prints hanging up in her room, but I took a picture of the pictures to have in the family blog.
She set a goal to work on her back flip, tuck, and handspring this year. Last week on the trampoline she got it down. She has had the skills for a while, she has been working on the nerves to trust herself and do it. She has a couple nasty trampoline burns on her face but she is confident enough to do them well on the trampoline now. Next step is applying it to land.
Allison struggled with knowing what she wanted to ask for for Christmas this year. Ryan and I decided that she would like to have an experience and make some memories instead of a physical gift. We came up with an indoor sky diving experience. Luckily we were right, and she was thrilled.
Shortly after the new year we scheduled her sky diving experience. It was for her and one other person so she asked me to go with her.
It was a lot of fun, it was a lot harder then we thought it would be, we were exhausted when we were done and sore the next day. It was loud and cold. But it was worth it and we had a good time. We haven’t told the rest of the family yet but we got a good deal on a family skydiving package when we were done so we got that and will take everyone sometime soon. We are waiting for Matthew’s leg to heal.
Here are the pictures and videos of us.
I was making dinner and cooking something on the stove. I looked up and saw a little message for me on the microwave. Allison left it for me. Sweet girl. It made my day.
Allison started gymnastic when she was about 4 years old for fun. A few years ago she decided that she wanted to get a little more serious with it and start competing. We switched to a different gym and she had to get to a certain level before she could compete in meets. She worked for almost a year and made the team to start competing. The week before she started her team practices she broke her arm and wasn’t able to compete that season. When she was cleared she was a little behind again and had to do some catch up again. She was almost caught up and then COVID put a hold on everything for a few months. Even though she couldn’t go to class for a few months she worked at home to stay limber and work on getting better at her stuff. Once they started back again she made Team 4, she worked really hard again and in August right before school started they asked her if she would be interested in competing and moving up to Team 5. She was pretty excited and she has worked really hard and gotten a lot better. After 2 1/2 years of setting her goal to start competing in meets with a team, she had her first meet this past weekend! She did a great job and it was fun to watch her. Dad and I were the only ones aloud to go in person and watch because COVID is still raining on everyone’s fun, but I was able to record it and we watched it with the family when we got home and sent it to grandparents and other people. Dad and I are both proud of her for working hard and accomplishing her goal. She thought it was pretty fun and wants to keep doing more and getting better.
Church is still not back to normal yet. Each Stake is doing things a little different depending on how it best works for them. Our ward has been having very small groups of people attend church each week. This past week they have changed it a bit and now the ward is split in half so you will go every other week and then do your own at home every other week. In the past, every year in October the Primary Children do a sacrament program to share what they have been learning in Primary. They sing songs and have little speaking parts they share. It is one of my favorite sacrament meetings of the year.
This year I am the Primary President so it is my job to put the program together with my presidency. Most wards have canceled it due to COVID, some have done a virtual program. We decided to put together a virtual program for those kids that wanted to participate. I will plan on attaching it to this post when it is complete. The girls did their part for it today. They each wrote an answer to a question. Emilee’s was, how can I keep my baptismal covenants? Allison’s was, how can I teach others about Christ?
Matthew was to cool to go to the pumpkin patch with us this year. The girls and I went to the Louisburg Cider Mill. You can watch the process of them making the cider from a whole apple to sealing the lid on the jar. They also have pumpkin spice donuts that are made fresh and you can watch that happen too.
We didn’t have a ton of time this year so instead of meandering through the entire pumpkin patch the girls picked a pumpkin from the mini patch they had next to the store. They could pick any pumpkin they wanted as long as they carried it themselves. I had my hands full of donuts and all of our cider slushies. We had to stop and give Emilee a few breaks on the way to the car but we made it, and ate another donut to celebrate.
We decided to get extra donuts for our cousins. They had a visitor that had COVID when she came so they have to quarantine again, and on day 10 of their quarantine Ross and we think Lauren came down with it too. We thought they might enjoy some fresh donuts. We took some to Grandma and Grandpa Terry too as a perk for living by us.
Well, it was delayed 2 weeks and then middle school and high school were changed to virtual only for an undetermined amount of time based on a ridiculous skewed made up ‘gating criteria’ but we had the first day of school this past week!
The principal kept all the walkers until after the car riders were gone so Allison sat in the class room an extra 45 minutes, got home an hour after school ended, and crossed a four lane road without a crossing guard, but after what I can only imagine was a full inbox, many phone calls, a meeting with the teachers, and even more in person conversations she decided against that and let the kids go when school was over the next day. This was a big issue several years ago but the principal in her never ending attempts to control every single thing tried it again. Four years left of this woman…four years.
Allison rode the bus the first day with Emilee so she wouldn’t be by herself and is in 5th grade. Her last year of elementary school. Her teacher is Mrs. Brown and seems to be pretty awesome so far. Back to school night was all virtual and she did a good job so you could actually hear and see what was going on. I think she will be a good fit for Allison. As I mentioned, she can ride the bus but most of the time wants to walk or ride her bike to see her friends because none of her best friends ended up in her class. We have made the deal that on days I work and dad isn’t working from home she has to ride the bus, other days she can pick. She is going to do one more year of girls scouts. She is doing cheer one last time (hopefully) and has gymnastics twice a week for 2 1/2 hours. She color coded all of her school supplies to the correct pencil box they go in. As usual she is up to date on all the school gossip and happenings, even some from the middle school, despite being with her class and her class only all day long. Lunch is in the class room, and recess is rotating to different areas with your own class. She is glad to be back in school though and see and interact with more people.
Emilee is starting 2nd grade. She will ride the bus each day. She puts her mask on and they take her temperature then she is whisked away to the school. Once she is dropped off she walks around a one way loop at the school until she arrives at her classroom. Her teacher this year is Mrs. Trimble. Allison had her for 2nd grade as well and I wasn’t impressed. I requested a change but the principal said she can’t do anything about it. For now we will keep her there and hope that it goes well. If it doesn’t I will have a meeting with the principle about it. Anyway, she is doing good so far. There are 18 kids in her class, 6 of those are girls. She seems to be pretty comfortable now since she knows most of the kids and is familiar with the school. Recess rotation on the grass with no balls and not allowed to play tag is pretty boring but she did find two frogs so that brightened her day. She is not going to do Girl Scouts this year. Hopefully activity days will be starting again before to long. We will get her on a basketball team in the winter. We are also looking into horse lessons with her bestie Reese once a week.
Matthew is in 8th grade. He started conditioning this summer with the intentions of playing football but ended up deciding against it. He has put on a grand total of 5 pounds this last year and 1 inch making him 5 feet even and 85 pounds soaking wet. He decided to focus on getting better at basketball and baseball instead of getting squished in football. He was supposed to start school full time in person, but the school switched a few days before school started to all virtual. Apparently it is safe enough to play sports…but not sit in a desk at school. So he has four classes a day for 1 1/2 hours each via zoom. That is a long time to be staring at a computer screen. We are trying to make the best of it and hopefully it will not last much longer. He is pretty social and is finding and settling in with a good group of kids it seems like. None of them are close enough to hang out after school without parent assistance in getting there but they are close enough it is pretty easy to get them together. There is one boy in particular we are glad he is buddies with. Tyson Beshore. The whole family is a great family, anytime we can get them together we are more than happy to do it. Matthew can get his learners permit for driving in October. That is pretty crazy.
So the 2020 school year if off to a start. It is going to be a different, frustrating, and hopefully end well but we will see. I hope my kids can learn and grow mentally, physically, socially, and emotionally.
Allison had her 10th birthday. Double digits for her is a big deal! She has told us that her standing in the world is basically an adult now that she has two digits in her age. She is beyond excited to be able to say, “I am 10 years old!” Instead of the slightly less dignified, “I am basically 10.”
She originally approached me with a three day two night party plan with her closest 20 friends. After some negotiating we were able to get it narrowed down to something a little more manageable for her no fun mom. She helped plan a very good party for herself. She invited a few friends over to watch a gymnastics movie about mid afternoon and play some games. Then per her request we had Wendy’s for dinner. Of course their was blowing out candles and a cookie cake and opening presents. Then they went not just swimming, but swimming at the end of the day so it was dark and the pool lights were on. It is fun to swim in the dark.
After swimming they cleaned up and watched a movie outside in the driveway with lots of movie snacks. Then they goofed around in the basement until they fell asleep. The next morning we had donuts and juice for breakfast. After breakfast they all piled into the car for the last activity of the party, open gym at the gymnastics gym. When that was over everyone was pretty tired and went home to hopefully take a nap.
It was a fun group of girls, I think Allison had a fun time and loved celebrating herself. Her dad and I gave her a hover board which she was beyond excited about. She zips around all over the place with it.
All right dear Allison. This post is about you. Maybe no one ever reads it again. Maybe we laugh about it together in the future. Maybe it is just for immediate therapy.
You are a strong willed, determined, passionate human being. I love those qualities in you but I admit they are also sometimes difficult to help you learn to manage and direct. I know sometimes I am to overbearing and short and impatient with you. I promise it is something I work on daily. Darn it girl! You don’t make it easy sometimes. We seem to struggle more sometimes than others with getting along with each other and lately it has been more struggle than not.
Yesterday we had some dentist appointments and then were meeting some friends at the Butterfly Garden to spend the afternoon. The dental appointments went a little quicker than usual, we had an hour drive and were still going to be a little early to meet our friends. There was a McDonald’s right next to us so I asked the girls if they wanted to get a little snack to eat on the way at McDonald’s. This is how the next few minutes went.
Me: Ok, I will swing by McDonald’s and you can each get something.
Allison: Is there a Wendy’s? I like Wendy’s better.
Me: No, there is not a Wendy’s around here. We are by McDonald’s already, that is why I said McDonald’s.
Allison: We passed a Burger King on the way here. Can we go there instead?
Me: (deep breath- 9 out of 10 times when we have any plans or decisions made Allison will request they be changes for her convenience- we have time to kill, it isn’t a big deal) Sure, it isn’t on the way but since it is pretty close and we have a little extra time we can go to Burger King instead.
A few minutes later pulling into BK I ask the girls what they want. Emilee wants french toast sticks and Allison requests mozzarella sticks. It is still early so I ask the employee if they are making mozzarella sticks or not. They say they are not but will make them ‘special’. I look at the menu and it says 4 or 8 sticks, and ask Allison how many she wants.
Allison: I want 5.
Me: They don’t do 5. You can do 4 or 8.
Allison: I only want 5. I will eat 6. Can you ask them for 6.
Me: (deep breath-Allison often likes to ignore facts, rules, or guidelines and will just keep repeating her question/statement to see if the answer will change) 6 is not an option. 4 or 8 is the option. If you want 6 get 8 and share the rest with others.
Allison: Uugg. I will do 4. Ask them for extra mozzarella.
Me: They are already made sticks, you can’t add mozzarella to them.
Allison: Why can’t you just ask. It doesn’t seem hard to add cheese to something.
Me: (deep breath) Tell the person we are ready to order and ask for 8 mozzarella. As I do this Allison repeats over and over in my ear from the back seat to just ask for extra mozzarella. I ignore her.
Allison: Rolls her window down (which I usually have locked for reasons just like this) and interrupts me and asks the employee if she can change her order to 6 sticks and add extra cheese.
I take another deep breath while the employee says, as you might expect, “We only have 4 or 8 sticks, and we can’t add extra cheese but we can do extra sauce.” Allison then changes her order to 4 sticks and NO extra sauce. I take another deep breath and pull forward to get the food. As we wait she repeatedly asks in my ear from the back seat to ask for extra sauce because she now wants extra sauce. They hand me me the bag and there is a large container of sauce-easily plenty for 4 sticks. She insists it is not enough, so I ask for an extra sauce and we drive away.
Allison ends up eating 4 sticks with no sauce because ‘it tastes weird’.
I have had several conversations with Allison in the past when my patience is better about doing things efficiently, or easily, or conveniently, or considering others time or preferences. When I finish she explains to me that efficiency, ease, and convenience are below zero on her scale of importance when making decisions and other peoples needs she will try to consider more often but by her tone are barely above the previous reasons. Her desires, interests, aesthetic appeal, and fun are what drives her decisions. So we continue our daily interactions with very different approaches. One thing is for sure, we will both help each other build our patience and endurance.
This is a day that I usually prefer to pass by unnoticed and then pretend to be disappointed when someone remembers we missed it. Most of my family seems to be on the same page with my opinion, with the exception of Allison. She anticipates it for months and has almost the same giddy excitement she has for Christmas or her birthday when it gets close. With the entire Nation on stay-at-home orders I think in general most people paid more attention to it this year, simply because of lack of other things happening. Allison had a long list of tricks ready to go.
She placed a piece of card board in all the toilets. Thank goodness she hasn’t discovered other ‘options’ for this classic trick, that I will not even mention here because she does eventually read this.
She put tape across several doorways. This happened to be the day I did laundry and often was carrying things in front of me so I couldn’t see as well. So I personally ‘fell’ for this one at least 5 times and so did others. She was very pleased with herself.
I also found tape covering the faucet when I turned it on in my bathroom.
The one she did that made me chuckle the most was drawing on Emilee’s arm while she was sleeping. Emilee came in and said, “Mom, I don’t remember drawing any of this on my arm.” She still draws on herself enough that it was a total possibility she did it, but was confused she couldn’t recall it.
Allison’s pride and joy prank for the day was getting a hold of Matthew’s cell phone and changing her contact to “Campbell” who is Matthew’s crush. She then texted him like she was Campbell. Matthew figured out pretty quickly that it wasn’t Campbell but he thought it was her sister. He even told Allison about it and she was giggling while she sat right next to him and continued to text. He figured it out shortly after that. Then I helped him change it back and change the password on his phone so she couldn’t get into it anymore.
The winning prank of the day was by me though. Thanks to my neighbors. They pranked me first with the following pictures.
Once they new they got me they said they were looking it and would send me more info when they found it. A minute or so later she said here is what we found. and send me this.
Emilee’s Answers (Age 7)
Allison’s answers (Age 9)
Matthew’s Answers (Age 13)
As I have mentioned part of the reason for our pre-Spring Break is because it is parent teacher conference time.
I went and saw all of the kids teachers and saw how they are doing. Matthew was supposed to come with me and show me a presentation that he had made about how his year has been going. He was sick so I just went myself and his teacher showed me. He is doing great. He catches on pretty quick most of the time and things seem easy. His biggest area to grow in is challenging himself more. Not just doing the minimum and being done. Pushing himself to go above the minimum even if it is uncomfortable (because it will be) and growing more than the ‘requirement’. When I was telling him how his conference went I told him this is a nice way of his teacher saying-don’t be lazy, and I agree. He rolled his eyes and said ‘okay mom’. Then I gave him a hug and told him I am proud of his effort he does put in. I know a lot of moms that have to remind, nag, beg, threaten their kid to not just do homework but turn it in, and even admit they have it. I ask Matthew on occasion if he has done his homework but more so he doesn’t feel like I don’t care than I am worried he hasn’t done it. Since Kindergarten he has come home and done his homework on his own unless he needs help without being asked.
Allison was also supposed to come with me to her conference. She did and showed me her slide presentation she prepared for me. Then we went through some of the papers she had written the first part of the year. She is doing very well and her creativity shows just as much in her school work as it does in other areas of her life. I took a picture of a couple so share. Even her research reports are fun to read. She is a talented girl. She excels in many areas. One of her favorites right now is Math. She seems to have a good portion of her dads engineering brain. I am very proud of her and how hard she works. Her area of improvement is to slow down and take her time. It isn’t a race to finish everything. Then she gave me all the sticky notes she had collected from various teachers on the board of “items needed” for their classrooms, while she was waiting for me to finish Emilee’s conference. When I tried to explain the items are for the kids/parents to get that are actually in that teachers class and picking one was enough she was mortified at my “lack of caring for others and their needs.” When I told her I would split the cost of whatever she wanted to get for the teachers she put a few back and kept a more reasonable amount of sticky notes. 😘
Emilee was the only one that was not supposed to come to her conference. While I enjoy my children’s company this is the way I prefer to have a parent teacher conference-with just the people listed in the title of the event. Emilee has improved her reading a lot this year. I will admit I was a little bit nervous at the beginning of the year. It was a bit of a struggle to get her to even try to read. She has tried hard and is doing really well now. In Emilee’s life in general I feel like she has started to accept the fact that she can do a lot of stuff for herself. While she is the youngest and all of us are guilty of just doing things for her because it is easier-and quite frankly she prefers it that way- I think we have made great strides in her willingness to try doing things on her own and for herself. She has shown it in playing basketball and not taking herself out of the game because she is ‘done’, making her own peanut butter sandwich, and reading books on her own even though she might not know every word. Her teacher said she is a happy fun girl to have in class and I am proud of her too. She had a very good folktale about how guinea pigs learned to run I got to see at her conference.
This is when Allison was three maybe 4. Ryan’s company was putting out some new media and asked if Allison could be the kid for the pictures about their work with different school districts. She looks adorable but she was having none of it that day. She wouldn’t smile for anything. The best they got was a silly face. Every now and then it pops up on mine or Ryan’s Facebook feed. I know it is in a picture book somewhere but I don’t think it has made it to my blog yet so I am going to put it here because she is a cutie.
It is Valentine’s celebration at school time! It was Emilee’s turn to have me help at her class party so I went and ran a game for them. There were many cute boxes and lots of excited kids. It is cute to see them deliver all their valentines. I helped with a game called Cupids Arrow. Each kid get a straw and a bunch of q-tips. They put the q-tip in the straw then blow through the straw and try to get it in a bowl. One boy started at the game area and was not happy at it because ‘the games are always boring and the worst part of the party’. Once I explained and started the game, he ended up being the biggest fan and was hard to get to move on to the next area. Emilee opted to go with a traditional mail box for her Valentine Box that she decorated.
Allison’s party was not at exactly the same time so I was able to stop by and hang out with her at her party for a little bit too. True to her previous endeavors when making her Valentine Box she had to go bigger then the year before. Last year is her last year to make boxes which will be sad to not see the creative ideas she comes up with, but good in that they can’t get to much bigger or she won’t be able to carry them with out help. She went with the Rooster theme like last year but created an entire scene instead of just one rooster. This poor guy is running for his like so he doesn’t get eaten by the roosters that are quickly gaining on him. The last rooster is reminding them that they are vegetarians and don’t really want to eat him. The barn door is where you put the valentines.
It has been snowing almost weekly this winter. That is a lot more often that usual for us. Most of them have been less than an inch but some have been a couple inches. Several of them have been the really wet snow that is good for snowman building. We have played a lot in the snow but winter is always a time to get creative about what to do indoors.
Allison has her braces on and gets to go to the dentist a lot these days to have them checked. She found a fun toy in the treasure box after her last visit.
Allison also tried her hand out at the school National Geographic Geography Bee this year. She was the representative for her class. I was proud of her for trying it. The questions were pretty hard.
There have been a few things this week that made me smile and show Allison’s determination. I know that her determination can sometimes drive be bananas, but I love that quality in her. She has a drive to accomplish her goals and desires. It will take her far.
She has recently decided that she wants to get another guinea pig so Peanut Butter isn’t lonely. Ryan and I are not on board with this in anyway and have made no effort to hide our thoughts on the matter. She has just pushed our reasons aside and said she will let us know when she has saved up enough money. She has somehow come up with the amount of $300 to save and then ‘we can’t say no’ even though we told her we have already said no and will continue to say no, regardless of how much money she saves.
Her getting guinea pig number two desire has reinvigorated her dog walking business. Her friend and her were out doing this earlier this week. As they were walking a dog down a street they noticed a sign taped up to the light pole that a couple 2nd grade girls had posted advertising to walk people’s dogs for them. Allison started looking around and noticed that there were several of these signs taped up to mailboxes and other light poles. She finished walking the dog then came straight home to report that some ‘little second graders were trying to steal her business’ and she was not having it, ‘not on my watch’. Her and her friend then spent the next two hours, making their own signs and taping them up right next to all the signs the 2nd graders had put up. She felt quite confident that no one in their right mind would pick a 2nd grader to walk their dog when there was a ‘more experienced’ 4th grader available.
Emilee and Allison share a bathroom and it is always disgusting. Clothes and toothpaste everywhere, play makeup, towels, orbees, soap, made up chemistry projects, and hair stuff is always all over the place. It drives me crazy. It is a constant battle to get them to clean it up or keep it clean. The other day I was grossed out by the bathroom and both girls kept claiming they had ‘cleaned’ it. I was annoyed with it and didn’t want to clean it myself but felt like if I wanted it to actually be clean I would have to have them help me do it, which is basically doing it for them and I didn’t want to do that. I decided to motivate Allison with one of her biggest motivators-money- to clean it. I told her if she cleaned it and did a REALLY good job I would pay her $3. She thought for a minute and counter offered with $3 but not the shower. We compromised at $2 and she didn’t have to clean the shower this time. She came and got me a little while later to have me come check and make sure she did a good job. She had done an amazing job. It was spotless (except the shower of course 😊). I was shocked!! I told her she did amazing and I was proud of her. I didn’t tell her that now that I know her true capabilities the jig is up and she will be cleaning her bathroom a lot more. If I have to pay her two dollars to do it, that is totally worth it to me.
The day after we got home from Colorado we started the unpacking of all the suitcases. Around lunch time we decided to go out to lunch together since we hadn’t gone to the grocery store yet, and I hate to cook.
The stars aligned and all the moons were in the right place and whatever else needs to happen for a miracle so everyone was happy, speaking cheerfully, and using good manners. As we were eating a lady sitting next to us turned and pointing at Matthew and Allison said, “Your kids are so cute, are these two twins?”
I have never been asked this before so I was a little caught off guard but I was swooning in the compliment about my kids because usually one is crying, one is whining, and one is asking if we can go yet over and over. Allison didn’t hesitate a second and like she had answered the question a million times and said, “Not identical, I am awesome he his not.”
Matthew’s face after receiving a completely unexpected and completely amazing ‘burn’ from his sister was just as funny as Allison’s comment. He had a flabbergasted look on his face and said, “I’m awesome too.” The lady laughed and moved on, I don’t know if she realized they weren’t twins or not.
It was pretty funny. It was one of those moments that I still think about every now and then and get a good chuckle. Hehe, Allison and her spunky wittiness.
As summer is getting started and we are all adjusting to being around each other for most of our day. I have had the thought cross my mind a couple times one thing or another just drives me crazy. As I have thought about these things, sometimes they legitimately drive me crazy and I want to pull my hair out. Somethings that drive me crazy though I think I will miss someday so I should quit my complaining and enjoy it while it lasts.
The first thing that came to my mind was our family seating arrangements for church on Sunday. This has changed a lot over the years as the kids go through different ages, we have had assigned seating, rotating seating, and occasionally ‘you pick’ seating. Currently ‘first come, first serve’ is the way seats are chosen unless people get rowdy then Ryan and I start making them play musical chairs. The whole thing is quite ridiculous. It is just sitting and listening for 45 minutes but they act like they are making a life altering choice.
Whatever the seating arrangement is, there seems to also be some unspoken rule that says everyone has to get as close to me as possible and take up as little space on the bench as possible. Every Sunday I feel like I am being smothered during Sacrament. I have one or two people trying to sit on my lap or lay their head on my lap, hold my arm or hand, lay on my shoulder, wedge their body underneath me for warmth. Aaahhh, sometimes I just want to sit by myself and stretch out. I know someday they will sit in their own space though or not be there at all and I will miss it, so I just try to enjoy if for now.
I’ve always had a rule that my kids can come get me at night if they need me or have a bad dream but they can not sleep in my bed. They can snuggle a minute, or sleep on our couch in our room, or I will even lay by them in their bed until they fall back asleep but they are not supposed to sleep in my bed because I like to sleep without being kicked or squished or wake up with a kink in my neck because someone wedged themselves underneath me. Matthew and Allison follow this rule very well. Matthew has already outgrown needing me at night for a few years now. Allison occasionally will come poke me for a hug but not very often. Emilee has been the hardest to enforce this rule with. Partly my fault because she has always been a little cuddler from day one so if she comes for a snuggle, before you know it I’m waking up and its morning time. She has also mastered crawling into my bed without waking me up when she crawls in so I wake up in the morning with a sore back and her mouth breathing in my face. It is getting better but Emilee’s approach to disobeying has always been ignore or act like you don’t hear and smile cute when you get caught. That is really hard to combat at two in the morning when you are not conscious and want nothing more than to stay that way for the rest of the night.
I have a little white board on our fridge that I decided to use to put quotes on that I read or heard somewhere. Someday I will have a quote wall or something to display a bunch of them but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet so it doesn’t look sloppy and drive me crazy.
When you really want something you’ll find a way. When you don’t really want something you’ll find an excuse.
~Girl, Wash Your Face
Whatever standard you’ve set for yourself is where you’ll end up…unless you fight through your instinct and change your pattern.
~Girl, Wash Your Face
Words have power but actions shape our lives.
~Girl, Wash Your Face
When you know better you do better.
~Maya Angelou
Life is to be enjoyed not just endured.
~Gordon B. Hinckley
If thoughts make us what we are, and we are to be like Christ, then we must think Christ like thoughts.
~Ezra Taft Benson
Forget yourself and go to work.
Be grateful, humble, smart, prayerful, involved, true, positive, and still.
~Gordon B. Hinckley
Be proud of the work you do the person you are and the difference you make!
God gave the Sabbath day for man, not man for the Sabbath day.
It’s their day too.
The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God won’t help you.
Choose the harder right, instead of the easier wrong.
~Thomas S. Monson
Wherever thou art, act thee thy part.
~David O. McKay
If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.
One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what someone has to say.
I am your mother, you are my child. I am your quiet place, you are my wild. I am your calm face, you are my giggle. I am your wait, you are my wiggle. I am you dinner, you are my chocolate cake. I am your bedtime, you are my wide awake. I am your lullaby, you are my peek-a-boo. I am your good night kiss, you are my I love you.
In December we decided to change it to our scripture board and we wrote scriptures on it that we wanted to memorize as a family. For a little incentive to memorize them, we let the kids pick a small reward each time they memorized one. Matthew picked a QT icee, Allison picked staying up an extra hour after her regular bedtime one night. Emilee is still deciding. They have to have them memorized to the point that I could ask them at any time and they could rattle it off without thinking.
Alma 37:35 …yea remember my son and learn wisdom in thy youth. Yea, learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God.
Alma 38:9 …there is no other way or means whereby man can be saved only in and through Christ. Behold He is the light of the world. Behold he is the word of truth and righteousness.
Despite the fact that time slowed down so one day felt like 10 according to my kids Christmas Day FINALLY came! We were at Grandma and Grandpa Terry’s this year with our Bourne and Terry cousins.
Christmas Eve we had a big yummy ham dinner together. Grandpa read us the Christmas story and talked to us about using our time wisely on Sundays when we get an ‘extra hour’ at home. We sang Christmas songs and then the kids bounced off the walls and played games until bedtime. Then they continued to bounce off the walls in their beds with excitement until the last of their energy wore out and they fell asleep. Leah and Allison were the last two to fall asleep. There goal was to stay up all night. They said they made it to midnight, but I checked on them at 11:30 and they were sleeping. They woke up at 5:45 but we made a rule the night before that no one could wake anyone up until 6:30. They stayed in their room like they were supposed to and argued about who was not being quiet enough just loudly enough for the people below, next to, and across the hall to hear them.🤦♀️ At 6:30 AM sharp all the kids magically awoke if they weren’t already and let everyone know it was time to open presents.
Santa was right on with his gifts this year. Emilee loved her doll that can ride her horse she got for her birthday. Allison got a karaoke machine that she has been using non-stop. Matthew got a new bat for next season that he is very excited to use.
We spent the rest of the day playing with new toys, eating left overs, relaxing and staying in our pajamas. It was a very nice Christmas day!
The past few years I have tried extra hard to make it a point to enjoy the holiday season and not get to busy with things that it rushes by and I feel stressed and frustrated instead of joyful and peaceful like you should feel at Christmas. I was able to get decorations up and most of the Christmas shopping done before we left on our cruise so that when we got back we could enjoy the rest of December and do our family Christmas traditions.
We kicked off the week after we got home by setting up the card table and pulling out a bunch of puzzles to start doing. There is something about Christmas music, lights, decorations, and cold weather that makes you want to put your slippers on and do a puzzle, or ten.
A few times before Christmas we like to drive around and look at Christmas lights. We get in our PJ’s, make some hot chocolate, bring a cozy blanket, turn on our favorite Christmas music, and go check out all the neighborhood Christmas lights. There are several neighborhoods that we know will not disappoint but we try and find new ones too. When we found the house with all the blow ups we had to get out and walk through it to appreciate the 100+ blowups in their yard, including a 25 foot penguin. I bet their neighbors just love them.
Matthew is loosing interest a little in gingerbread house decorating but the girls still love it. Sometimes we make one big one, sometimes we each make our own little one. Then as Emilee announces several times a day, “Gingerbread houses are made to be eaten.” They slowly become stripped of their candy and frosting. If there is anything left, our elf Bubbit takes them with him back to Santa on Christmas Eve to share with all the other elves.
Bubbit is our elf that visits every year and keeps an eye on who is being naughty or nice for Santa. Every morning he is in a different spot, sometimes he is being a little mischievous or silly. Occasionally he gets into marshmallow fights with the barbies or super hero figures. The older he gets the more he likes to just hide in funny spots. We got him in 2013. At the time Allison had found a grasshopper and named it Bubbit so when our elf showed up she thought it was the perfect name for him too. Lots of people have elves. They show up around December 1st. Some ambitious elves show up on Thanksgiving. Bubbit is a special elf that helps Santa do some extra work so he usually doesn’t make it to our house until mid December. It is good to let the anticipation of his arrival peak before he comes.
My mom and dad gave us a story called ‘The Last Straw’ that was a tradition we did in my family growing up. We have an empty basket and we fill it up with straw by putting in a piece every time we do something kind for someone. Then on Christmas Eve the basket is full of straw from hopefully hundreds of small acts of kindness and love, and we have a little Baby Jesus to put in the basket.
We usually go to the church Christmas breakfast. It was a little low in attendance this year but it was still a fun time. Allison picked a spot in the very back corner for us to sit. I looked up while I was eating and could see everyone there eating and visiting and having a good time while Christmas music played softly in the back ground. It was a nice moment. We have a very nice and friendly ward. Santa came at the end and the girls gave him a high five and talked to him. Emilee wanted to do it but almost had a heart attack waiting in line as the anticipation of willingly walking up to a stranger and talking to him built up. She was with her two good friends so that helped her bravery and she did it. When they finished and she found out that you get a candy cane for talking to Santa, her bravery went through the roof and she went back all by herself.
Matthew has been a little bit of a scrooge this year. Allison has noticed and taken it upon herself to fix his ‘not Christmasiness’ self. She brainstormed a few ideas and I carefully helped steer her towards ones that might actually have the results she wants instead of the opposite. (Running into his room every hour tonight while he was sleeping and yelling, “Matthew be more Christmasy” until he said ‘ok’ was luckily moved off the table) Instead the girls made him a giant poster that said Merry Christmas Matthew and hung it up in his room. We will see if operation ‘Make Matthew Merry’ is a success.
Several years ago we made chocolate pretzels to hand out as a treat to out neighbors. The kids had a lot of fun doing it and it has become our traditional treat from the Terry’s that we hand out to friends and neighbors. We have stream lined it pretty good too. It used to be an all Sunday afternoon activity, but now we can make them and hand them out in the same day. It is also pretty hard to screw up which is good for me.
The kids are leaving tomorrow to go to Grandma’s early with their cousins. Ryan has work he wants to get done before Christmas, and I want to see the church Christmas program Sunday morning before we go up. It has been a very nice December. It isn’t over yet, I know, I’m just relishing the greatness so far of this magical month.
Our November flew by in a flash! Everyone had lots of activities going on, I worked quite a bit, and Ryan was extra busy with work. I also like to get as much Christmas prep done as I can in November so when December comes we can have less to do and enjoy the season. So we got our decorations up mid December and most of the present shopping done too. The girls had a daddy daughter dance with their dad for Girl Scouts. It happened to be on the same night as Ross and Lauren’s annual Pie Night, so the girls decided to leave the dance a little early to make it to both activities. Ryan was very happy with their decision because he looks forward to Pie Night. Emilee found a cat while we were waiting at piano lessons. She coaxed it from the neighbors driveway to the one we were at and played with it. I had a spell of momentary weakness come over me that almost ended up with me bringing the cat home. I was able to talk myself down though. The kindergartners celebrated Thanks giving by having a little singing program for their parents. They all dressed up as an Indian or a Pilgrim. Then they had a feast together when they were all done. The Saturday before Thanksgiving we had a Friendsgiving with some families from Matthew’s baseball team. It was a fun night. We are very lucky to have a nice group of families on the team.
My mom had a surgery on her neck the week before Thanksgiving so we went up to South Dakota to see her and my dad for Thanksgiving. It has been a while since we have been up there. I was very happy to find my mom in very good condition considering she had a major surgery one week before. She was doing so good I had to keep reminding the kids that they had to be careful with her.
Ryan and I both worked on Wednesday so we headed up on Thanksgiving Day. We decided to celebrate on Friday instead.
My mom likes to cook but couldn’t, I could cook but don’t like to so we decided to pick the favorites we wanted from a traditional Thanksgiving dinner and nix the rest of it.
My mom, always prepared (even when having a surgery), had made rolls ahead of time, and had the options of a turkey, chicken, roast or ham to choose as the main dish. My mom and I were out voted on the turkey for a ham. We added the rolls, corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, a Sam’s Club pumpkin pie (the very best pumpkin pie you can get) and we had a great Thanksgiving feast on Friday. For the rest of our time in South Dakota everyone’s goal was to relax. I think we were very successful at it. We all went to the theater together and watch the new ‘How The Grinch Stole Christmas’ movie. The kids discovered the 1992 Mighty Ducks movie. I remember loving it when I was younger and watching it many times. We watched the original, second and third movies of that. The boys went and saw the new Harry Potter movie too. My mom and I were able to squeeze in several Christmas Hallmark movies and the adults all watched ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ which I don’t recommend. Among all the couch potatoes watching movies there were many card games of Golf, and Baloney (BS), and various board games going on as well. It was a great long weekend.
We checked the weather several times and were debating on leaving Saturday or Sunday because KC up to Omaha was supposed to get hit with a big blizzard. We decided on leaving later on Sunday when the storm was done. When we woke up Sunday the storm was much bigger and slower so it was supposed to hit in the afternoon, so we left as early as we could to get home instead of waiting. The roads were crystal clear until we got just past Omaha. Then the freeways were closed and everything else. We tried the side roads for a bit but I got tired of that quick so we went back to the freeway and we were able to get on but we drove 30-40 miles the rest of the way home. This made the last usually 2 1/2 hour long trip take more than twice as long so by the time we got home it took us almost 11 hours instead of 6. It was a long day… the kids did great and were able to hold going to the bathroom for new record times. Ryan was pretty grumpy, and I was the driver the last 8 hours so I was tired. We were both a little irritable and we learned our lesson to be better at checking the weather. We told the kids it was a good example for them as to why we don’t drive in bad weather, and it wasn’t mom and dad’s best decision.
Allison had her 3rd grade music performance last week. They did songs about rocking through the ages. Each grade does a performance each year. Every year when parts get assigned and come home she flips out about how she got the worst part and she isn’t going to dress however she is supposed to. This year was the same. She was supposed to dress up like a nerd and she said there was no way she was going to do that. I have found it is best that I don’t say anything and by the time it comes around to the performance she is fine. That’s how it went this year too. Most of her friends ended up being nerds too so they all had a fun time planning their outfits and they did great on their performances.
Allison is in the front row, bottom left corner in the pink shirt.
Emilee sang a song with her class for the annual Veteran’s Day Performance at the school. She did a great job and liked that there was never any direct attention on her.
Matthew is done with football and started basketball practice, it is just once a week until games start after Christmas so he is also focusing on his baseball training. They aren’t supposed to throw in November so their arms get a break, so he has been hitting and doing Boost classes, which is weight and cardio training.
Sometimes when I go to bed I find a note or picture on my nightstand from one of the girls. The other night when I went to bed Allison had left a path of arrows for me to follow that lead me to a cute little tree that she had made out of pipe cleaners and pompoms with little birds in nests. It is so cute! She just came up with it all on her own. I love it when she is creative like that. She has some artistic abilities!
While we were at the baseball tournament Allison’s girl scout troop went on a fun adventure last weekend. They went to the State Capitol and toured the building and saw how everything worked. About half way home there is a girl scout cabin that they stopped at and spent the night. She was pretty excited. She has a lot of fun with the girls in her troop. They are all really fun and mesh well together. They hiked and started and cooked over a fire. She had the best hot dog ever that she cooked over the fire by herself, and of course they did smores’. She got a little nervous at night but her and a friend shared a bunk and were fine after that. She loved playing all the games and getting to do all the hands on stuff.
For the past several years we have been ‘Booed’ by someone. I am pretty sure it is the same person every year but we can’t figure out who it is. Being ‘Booed’ is when someone leaves a treat or goody bag on your porch without you knowing it. When you get Booed you are supposed to hang the little sign on the front door that says “We’ve been booed!” and then you Boo two other people. Kind of a more fun version of a chain letter. The kids love it. Emilee likes to just leave it on the porch for them to find sometime, but Alli and Matthew like to ring the doorbell and run to test their speed and sneaky skills.
Some years I am more into Halloween than others. Either way I am ready for it to be over by the 31st. This year is kind of on the down side for being gung-ho for Halloween. Fall came really late so the hot weather made it hard to get in the mood. The kids like to help me put the decorations up. I am into more cute and silly Halloween decorations. Allison and Emilee (totally just being an Allison follower) keep begging to get more creepy scary Halloween stuff. I am not into that part of Halloween at all. Matthew and Ryan aren’t either so luckily the girls are out numbered.
Allison gets her creepy gross Halloween fix when she picks out her costume though. Last year she was a dead bride, this year she spent over an hour at the Halloween store looking for the perfect ‘disgustingly creepy’ costume. I walked a fine line between not raining on her parade and swaying her away from ones I really didn’t want. She was wanting a scary clown with blood all over it. Unfortunately (or was is?) her choices for that costume were eliminated by not being available in the right size. She settled for a jester costume that had no blood on it but has gloves with long creepy fingers and a mask that is definitely scary clown material. It didn’t take her long to test her scariness and she was not disappointed. She hid in Matthew’s bathroom and scared him to death when he came in. I told her she couldn’t do that again but he walked around paranoid waiting for her to jump out anytime he couldn’t see her for two days because he didn’t trust her. He finally decided to hide her costume until Halloween so he didn’t have to worry about it. I was glad he thought of because I didn’t trust her either. It worked for about a week, then she found it. There is now a battle of hide-n-seek with Allison’s costume going on. If you hear the sound of bells (her jester hat has bells on it) you know you are going to get scared.
Emilee walked around the store pointing out all the creepy stuff but settled on a cute little bat outfit. She told me it is the bat ‘Mavis’ the vampire turns into from Hotel Transylvania.
Matthew wasn’t with us when we got the girls costume so he is going to reuse his costume from last year-the grim reaper- but call it a dementor from Harry Potter instead.
The girls and I went to a pumpkin patch together. There are many options around here. Emilee has been really wanting to go to the Deanna Rose Farmstead. It is a fun place with lots of different farm activities and animals to pet or feed or ride. They also have a hayride out to a pumpkin patch in October so we decided to go there and do both. It was pretty fun. We have gone to the farm many many times over the years. I have to say it is a little more relaxing now that they are older to take them places. There were lots of mom’s with babies crying, toddlers rolling in the mud, or running off. I’m not complaining about them. I have been there, I get it. I help redirect a kid, and lend a hand when I can. I am just enjoying the less hands on approach I can have now. This is the first time we tried the pumpkin patch part though. It wasn’t ridiculously overpriced and the patch was pretty compact and had enough activities to keep them busy for a while. We all got to pick a pumpkin as part of admission too. Usually we go to the pumpkin patch but we will buy our pumpkins later at the store because I’m a stick in the mud and won’t spend $10-$20 PER pumpkin at the patch. Call me crazy. I call them crazy for charging that much for a pumpkin. We ended our time there by stopping at the General Store and getting a few pieces of salt water taffy. I don’t eat it very often but I like salt water taffy. They have yummy flavors too. Some of our favorites are caramel apple, root beer, cinnamon, and strawberry banana.
There is always the school trunk or treat and the church Chili-cook off (which I won last year-see my post ‘Why I Avoid Cooking’ for more details) followed by the trunk or treat, class parties and more. There is no shortage of candy by the time Halloween is over.
We usually carve our pumpkins a day or so before Halloween. This is a picture from carving pumpkins last year. I think it captures everyone’s thoughts quite well. Matthew is trying to touch it as little as possible and repeatedly saying how gross it is. Allison is completely fascinated and loves everything about it from the smell to how slimy it is. You can’t see but Emilee has a spoon and is pointing and directing every cut Ryan is making but will not touch the pumpkin herself. Ryan took one for the team and is carving the pumpkin for Emilee. I am gagging over the smell while I take the picture. Every year I try and hype up the ‘lets paint our pumpkins instead’ option, but it is fun to put a candle in them and see the carving when your done so they have powered through carving them so far. 
I actually got a carving kit this year. It was worth every penny. I had the top cut off and the entire pumpkin gutted in under two minutes. Cutting out little spiders and other things was a piece of cake too.
For the last six or seven years on Halloween dad makes home made root beer with dry ice and we have pizza for dinner. We call the root beer ‘Witches Brew’. Then we get in our costumes and go trick or treating. Most of the time the McDonald’s come over and eat and go trick or treating with us. We usually split up into a slow group and a fast group after the first few houses. I don’t know how many more years we have before the kids want to start doing their own thing instead, maybe we will keep doing it together even when the kids don’t but just stay home and play a game instead. Matthew did end up going trick or treating with a few of his buddies. He had a ridiculous amount of candy when he got home.
This past weekend was an amazing weekend on all accounts. It was one of those weekends where the stars aligned and everyone was happy and the right amount of busy, relaxed, and enjoying each others company and activities that were going on. It was Parent Teacher Conferences so on Wednesday there was just a half day of school and then no school again until Monday. When the kids got home we went through the backpacks and got all that stuff done and hung them up so we didn’t have to think about it again until Monday morning. I went to the conferences and they were all fine. That night Matthew had a makeup baseball game that we went to. The girls both had a friend to play with so they were off at the park having a grand time. Both teams agreed to use wood bats because the tournament we played in over the weekend was a wood bat tournament. It didn’t go well. The boys had been practicing but all of their timing was a little off and it was kind of a sad game. Matthew decided to get over it by going to his friend Jake’s (also on the team) for a sleepover that night.
Thursday Matthew was at Jake’s most of the day and the girls and I went to a pumpkin patch. We had a fun little time. We did a hay ride, tractor ride, jumped on hay bales, went down slides, saw lots of animals, did a mini cornmaze (the best kind of corn maze), played in a giant bin of corn like a sandbox, and picked out some cute pumpkins. We topped it of with a favorite treat of salt water taffy on our way home.
Friday we played some games. One of our favorites right now is Trouble. Emilee thinks she can control the dice by wishing hard enough and crossing her fingers. It’s pretty funny when she guesses the right number. Friday night the girls gymnastics place was having their monthly parents night. The girls love it, they go and eat dinner, play games, and do gymnastics from 6:30-10:30. They have a blast and are still not ready to come home at 10:30. Matthew had three of his baseball buddies come for a sleepover Friday night. It was what he wanted to do instead of a big party this year for his birthday. We ate dinner at Pie Five, his favorite pizza place and then we went and played a couple games of laser tag. After that they came home and played night games outside for a while and watched a movie. I’m pretty sure they all had a great time. They all agreed to go to bed a little earlier than usual for a sleep over because the next day we started the Wood Bat Tournament.
Everyone woke up and it was hilarious seeing four boys get ready to go to their game. Ryan made us all a yummy breakfast and we went to the games. It was chillier so we were bundled up and snuggled in with blankets. I love it. We do spend a lot of time at baseball games but it is a fun time. The girls have fun at the games too. Sometimes they sit with me and watch but most of the time they run around in a pack with the other younger siblings at the game and play at the play ground or play tag or whatever they come up with. Emilee and her friend spent the whole day making homes and feeding their stuffed animals with grass that they would collect. Allison is one of the older ones so she likes being in charge and watching the kids. She played ‘the best game of tag ever’ most of the day. Then there is the food. We bring some healthier options but the girls love getting some nachos or an icee, or pretzels. They have hot chocolate now too which we all love. The boys played AMAZING and won the entire tournament with a 5-0 win record.
Alli had a birthday party she went to at the community center pool. Best friends and swimming in her favorite pool-double win.
Sunday we made it to church on time and without fighting in the morning. That is a miracle in itself. The primary is practicing for the program for the next few weeks. It is always an exciting time to get to sit on the stand and talk and sing in the microphone. Matthew had his first class with his new deacon quorum. He was also given the Aaronic Priesthood by his dad. Uncle Ross and Brother Sawaya helped in the blessing too. That night he was able to go to his first youth fireside. He came home and was telling me all about how media can be addictive and we should be careful what we watch and limit what we watch. I tried not to look to dumb founded as he told me all this ‘new information’ he had learned. I tried even harder not to say, “Matthew I have told you that almost every day for the last half of your life.” I am glad hearing it from a third party helped it actually stick a little between the ears instead of a pass through.
We all had a really nice weekend. There was a lot of quality fun past due family time. It was hard to let it go and return back to real life on Monday morning. I won’t name names but there were more than one kiddo sad enough to start the tears that they had to go back to school. On the way back from baseball we got ice cream, Emilee was eating it but had to take a nap before she finished because she was so tired. I looked back and her hand was inside her ice cream bowl and she was sleeping.
I love you to death Allison, but you can be a stinker sometimes. You have the tenacity, will power, and grit of a pit bull that just got bested by a chihuahua in front of his friends and his girlfriend. I love those qualities in you, they will be very helpful to you in your life. However, helping you learn to control, understand, and use those qualities in a positive way is not easy and as you well know, leaves you and your dad and I at our wits end sometimes. I am not perfect and know I make mistakes and don’t always help you in the best way. I apologize for that to you a lot, and I am sure I will owe you many more apologies in your life. Sometimes when we are in the thick of a situation with you we just have to laugh so we don’t scream or cry. When you see this it obviously infuriates you even more but we hope someday you will understand. We are not laughing at you, or making fun of you. We are laughing at the situation and our own frustration. So, I have decided to write down some of your more ‘stick it to my mom’ reactions and incidents so someday when you are older and understand we can laugh together.
Control is a big deal for you. You do not like to be told what to do or do something simply because everyone else did it. In church on Sundays when they make new callings or ask for sustaining votes, then any opposing votes. You ALWAYS oppose. If you are feeling a little more aggressive you will raise your hand high up in the air and clearly let anyone looking know you oppose. When you are a little less ornery it might be a quick half hand raise. I have even seen you just raise one finger, but nine out of ten times you do something. Then look at your dad and I like – “What are you going to do about it.”
Another one from church recently was planning your baptism. We sat down to pick who you wanted to do what for your baptism. We had to take a break and come back to it later because you were determined that you would only have one witness instead of two. “There is only one of me, I don’t need two people to watch me go under the water. I can watch myself.”
I have received many notes from you on my pillow when I go to bed at night. Sometimes it is a nice but more often than not it is chewing me out for some injustice you feel you had to endure throughout your day. This isn’t really a nasty one but it made me chuckle when I found it. If you notice, the diagonal ‘Chories Suck’ in purple letters. Very creative.
One of the earliest moments I remember of you deliberately being ornery was when you were about three. I knew your dad and I were going to have our hands full. I was chopping up raw onions for dinner and you came over and said you wanted to eat it. I told you it wouldn’t be very good but you wouldn’t let it go. I told you if you really wanted to take a bite you could but I didn’t recommend it. You grabbed the biggest piece you could find and shoved it in your mouth. It took about a half a chew before you face showed exactly what I expected, you did not like it. I said you could go spit it out because I could tell you didn’t like it. You glared at me, finished chewing, swallowed and said you did like it and grabbed another one and shoved it in your mouth. Then you stormed off, probably to go spit it out without any witnesses.
The past few months you have developed a habit that infuriates your dad and I. When someone is talking to you (anyone-but mostly your dad and I) and you don’t like what they are saying you start humming or making some obnoxious noise over them. AAAAHHHH! It seems like when I set my resolve to be more patient and not let your actions get to me, you up your game.
You have grown up a lot the past few months though and there is much more happiness than grumpiness from you for the most part. Whatever your mood though I love you tons girly!
Allison is having a little growth spurt mentally and physically. She is leaving her little girl traits behind and starting to get young girl traits in their place. She is loving 3rd Grade. She has a good fun group of friends she hangs out with and she likes her teacher, and she is feeling challenged with school work instead of doing ‘baby work’. She has a good grasp of math. She was playing a game with Ryan the other day and he was really impressed with her strategy ability and how she could add numbers in her head so quickly. It is fun seeing her start to grow up and show more of her traits and abilities. She is a talented girl.
She has been sick this week so she stayed home with me Wednesday through Friday. She slept most of the first two days but was starting to feel better on Friday enough to play Battle Ship and watch a movie together. She is a fun little girl. I love it when she is her happy silly self. She kept winning at Battle Ship so for the last game she put her ships all together so once I found one I found all of them. She has a kind sweet little heart.
She is good at piano but I am having to coerce her quite a bit to get her to stick with it. We made a deal that if she does it through Christmas break then I will let her choose if she wants to keep with it or not. Hopefully by then she will be hooked and want to keep going.
She is loving gymnastics still. She even admitted she was glad that she switched to the new place. She has been improving a lot. She can do several different kind of flips and walk overs. She switched from the tumbling only class to the general gymnastics class so she could do bars too.
She is doing another year of girl scouts. We switched troops this year too, and it is a much better fit. There are several girls in her troop that she hangs out with at school too, and her best friend from last year that is at the new elementary this year is in it too. They do a lot more activities that Alli is interested in and it is a good fit for her.
This popped up on my Facebook feed the other day. It is a conversation I had with Allison one morning when she was in first grade while I was helping her get ready. She cracks me up. I think she was trying to explain that she wanted her hair really smooth and flat against her head.
So Matthew works out a lot for baseball and football and he has recently become interested in getting strong well defined muscles like his arms and his abs. The other day he was explaining his plan to turn his four pack into a six pack and then an eight pack to Ryan and I. It was a very entertaining conversation. Allison and Emilee overheard it and Allison decided she was going to get an eight pack first and then keep going until she had a twelve pack. So the past week or so we have seen a lot of sit ups and crunches and many unknown exercises that apparently strengthen your abs. The funny part is the way they talk about it, they don’t really know what they are talking about. Allison skipped up and told me that she her two pack was now a three pack after doing sit ups for thirty seconds. I play smacked Matthew in the stomach the other day when he was being a smart mouth. He quickly replied that I missed because he blocked it with one of his packs. Emilee asks us to tell her how many packs she has all the time or just picks a random number to say she has. What a bunch of goof balls.
The past few years I have noticed that I really enjoy the changing of the seasons. I am ready for the change and the different activities with each one.We were at a baseball tournament and football game a few weeks ago. The temperature was 89 but with the heat index it felt like over 100. It was so humid and stagnant. Ugg! It was like that from the beginning of September to just this week. Then we had a little rain storm and it cooled down and the next morning it had that cool crisp fresh feeling in the morning. Aaahhh! I love it. We got the Fall decorations out, I put Mums in my planters, we have been having yummy soups for dinner, and going on walks to enjoy the beautiful weather.
Allison has decided that her new gymnastics place is better than she thought. She is progressing quickly. I felt like she was on the cusp of being able to do a lot of things for a while at the last place we went for gymnastics. I switched her to a new place I thought would be a little more aggressive in getting them to progress. I started Emilee in a class too. Allison was pretty upset at first and said it was awful and they didn’t know what they were doing. I told her to give it 6 months before she ‘insisted on switching back’. She has been there almost two months now and a few weeks ago she admitted its pretty fun. Her and Emilee both look forward to it every week. Now I am trying to get her to do the same thing for her new piano teacher.
Matthew and his friends like to play night games sometimes. Another fun Fall activity is having an evening fire pit with the neighbors and roasting some marshmallows.
We usually take turns eating dinner with Ross and Lauren at one of our houses on Fast Sunday. This month we went to their house. When we were cleaning up dishes I was wiping off a counter and when I looked up this little guy was hanging on the rim of the cabinet. He is probably only about an inch tall. Ross got him at a white elephant party. He is a drink marker, he hangs on the edge of your cup. The one he happened to get at the party had Ryan’s name on it. I thought it was pretty funny.
I volunteered for a few things since school started. I am enjoying it trying some new things. I volunteered to do dental screenings at elementary schools. I go and evaluate the kids teeth and let their parents know if they need to see a dentist. I am going to be a co-leader for Emilee’s girl scout troop. That one makes me a little nervous. I think it will be fun but it is a pretty big troop-17 girls. I hope I don’t go crazy. I am helping two of the kindergarten teachers once a week with prep work stuff too-copying, laminating, whatever they need. I have a goal of helping at Harvesters Food Bank once a month too if I can. That with all my regular stuff keeps me pretty busy. I like it.
Wow! The last few weeks have flown by. School and activities and other things are in full swing now. There is always something going on.
We finished the last weekend in August off by going to The Great Wolf Lodge for Aaron’s birthday. We had a great time! We tried all the slides, all the pools, and tried almost every kind of ice cream by the time we were done. Matthew was done around 3 after a full day of swimming. We had to drag the girls away at 4 to get back in time for baseball practice. Six hours of swimming wasn’t enough.
Allison and Matthew seem to have adjusted to school and handle their schedules pretty well. Emilee is still struggling a little bit. She seems to have a little bit of separation anxiety. She was nervous but doing okay, until last Friday I left her crying on the curb at school and thought she was going to follow me home. A teacher helped her make it to class but her teacher said it was a rough start to the day. Monday I walked her into class. The rest of this week I told her if she was a brave girl and got out of the car everyday this week and walked in like a big girl, I would come eat lunch with her on Friday. That worked pretty good. I think that will be our deal for the next couple weeks. Once she gets there and going she does great and has a good day. It is just hard to wake up and go in the mornings. We invited a friend Laney over today that she met in class. They are pretty good buddies and she lives just around the corner so that will be nice to have a friend close by.
Emilee went to a birthday party last week and was so excited to tell me that she got to fight Darth Vader with a purple sword when she got home. I love it when kids get so excited over fun simple things like that.
Last week was really rainy so football and baseball were canceled and moved to this week. That makes this week extra busy, but Matthew had his first football game last night. His coach has been talking with him about needing to be more aggressive and commit to his tackles more. He has been struggling with that and getting pretty frustrated. Last night at his game he was not going to play to much because his coach wanted him to get a little better at tackling first. Another player broke his arm at school so Matthew took his place. He is still a little timid but he did better than he has ever done at tackling. He took a couple people down and evaded a couple tackles. He was pretty proud of himself, so were we and so was his coach. His coach told him he figured out Matthew was a little surprise he wasn’t expecting.
I was going through some papers the other day and I found this little note that Matthew wrote for his dad. Every year on Matthew’s birthday they have a race because Matthew thinks he is faster than Ryan and Ryan has to prove he isn’t. Matthew wrote this for Ryan to intimidate him before their next race. Hahaha!
My birthday was nice. Ryan gave me an Apple Watch, it is pretty handy. He said I have no excuse for not answering or texting him back quickly now. I spent the day reading and relaxing and watching chick flicks. I went to lunch with some friends and we went to dinner as a family. The kids cleaned my car really well for my present. It was at my request and it is still a work in progress but they said they would get it done by this weekend. I watched a movie called, ‘All About Steve’ as part of my relaxing. It has Sandra Bullock in it, who I really like. The reviews were not good but I decided to watch it anyway and it was hilarious. It was supposed to be more ridiculous humor, and it must have been right up my alley because I was laughing a lot. It was a nice day. I did notice that most people asked me how young I was, instead of how old I am. I’ll take that as a sign that I am starting to head more towards the ‘older’ category instead of the ‘younger’ category.
I started the next phase of repainting my house. I picked the colors when we bought it and I still like them but the builders painted with flat paint. So I have been gradually repainting everything with a better paint when the wall gets so dirty that I can’t stand it anymore. I really hate painting, but I love a freshly painted wall. Especially one that I can wash when it get dirty. I also put most of my Fall decorations up. Not my Halloween yet, just Fall. I love Fall. I love being able to sit out on the porch and relax and enjoy the weather. I love that the Holidays are getting ready to start too.
Allison is really liking gymnastics. I switched where she was taking classes because she had stalled in her progression for a while. She wasn’t happy about it but I told her she had to give it a few months and she would notice lots of improvement. She has been there for about a month now, she is not complaining when I pick her up any more and she has gotten better in several areas. She is excited about it again and work on it at home a lot more. She is often doing sit-ups or arm exercises to help herself get stronger.
Many years ago my two sisters came upon some stink bombs that they were very excited to put to good use. I was not living at home anymore but they filled me in later. I can’t remember what they did with all of them but I know one ended up in the 18 hole at a mini putt putt golf course and could be smelled from the parking lot, where they observed from afar and laughed their heads off. Another one ended up in my brothers room and I have been told many times since that was probably the maddest they had ever seen him. They still laughed their heads off, just at a safe distance.
Fast forward a decade or so and…
Allison wanted to do a little shopping with some of her money that she had recently acquired. It usually starts burning a hole in her pocket the second she gets it so she wanted to go to 5 Below and see what treasures she could find (5 Below is a step or two above a dollar store, but everything is $5 or less) She meandered around and eventually found the prank aisle and thought she had enough money to get a whoopee cushion, fake little pieces of poop, and a small aerosol can of ‘fart smell’. (Insert emoji slapping its forehead) Luckily, she did not have enough to get all of those things, but despite my efforts to find something not in the poop category to spend her money on she put back the whoopee cushion and took the other two up to the front to pay.
When she checked out she actually only had enough money for one. I again told her we could go find something else but she agonized for what I am sure the people behind us in line felt like was forever over her decision until finally deciding to just buy the stinky spray (insert emoji with fallen disappointed face) After making her purchase she then skipped out to the car pleased as punch with herself.
On the way home she decided to test it. I should have seen this coming but didn’t think through needing possible rules for the stinky spray before we even got home. She sprayed it in the car and immediately started complaining that it didn’t even stink and she was going to email the company and tell them ‘their fart spray stinks because it doesn’t stink.’ Mean while, I am driving the van and was unfortunately sitting in a location in front of the direction she sprayed the stuff. It did stink! It was foul and disgusting and unlike a ‘real fart’ it didn’t dissipate after a few seconds (actually got stronger), or by rolling the windows down. It was disgusting and of course Allison thought it was hilarious. I immediately laid down some ‘stinky spray rules’ (never saw that coming before I became a mom) and told her no more spraying it in the car or other enclosed spaces.
Allison is the worlds best negotiator though and she baked up some story to spray a little in Matthew’s room as a joke on him because he pulls little pranks on her all the time. I could tell this was the entire grand plan behind getting the stuff in the first place so I told her she could do it one time. Matthew does pull lots of pranks on her.
Allison decided to sneak in his room when he went down for breakfast on Sunday morning before church. She sprayed some stench in his room them came down to eat. Matthew went upstairs to shower. Alli was bouncing with excitement waiting to hear his yell, or gagging sound or something. Nothing. He showered and got dressed then came out. I figured he tried the ‘just ignore it’ tactic to make Allison mad. I forgot about it and finished getting ready in my room. Allison was not ready to just move on though. She went in his room and sprayed some more. She made up some excuse to have Matthew come upstairs to his room, which he did…nothing. Didn’t react in anyway. He went back downstairs. Allison was not to be deterred though. She sprayed more, a lot more. So much more that it came out of Matthew’s room and down the hall and Ryan started to smell it from his closet. (Side note, Ryan was not happy I ‘let’ her buy the stink spray. He said it was a ‘bad choice’ and he ‘wished I wouldn’t have let her do that’ (insert emoji rolling eyes)) He came out to see what was going on and was ‘assaulted’ by the horrible smell now filling the hall and floating down the stairs. I don’t know what reaction she wanted from Matthew but she got one from Ryan. All previous stinky spray rules were erased and a new one was put in place.
NO stinky smell sprays are allowed to be used, stored, or even brought into the house or they will be thrown away and destroyed immediately with no compensation to the owner.
Apparently bad smells make Ryan pretty grumpy. That isn’t a big surprise, he is always telling the kids, ‘Don’t be the stinky kid.’ By this time everyone was getting annoyed and gagging at the smell, except for Matthew who was down stairs with his nose in a book oblivious to everything. While I was opening windows and getting some Febreeze I asked Matthew if his book was so good he couldn’t smell the stench overtaking the house. He said, “No, but my allergies are so bad that I can’t smell anything.” I told Allison why her prank didn’t work and she was pretty annoyed. HAHAHA!
So we finished getting ready for church and headed out the door. When we got to church Matthew came and sat between Ryan and I. I kept catching whiffs of the smell. I guess there was some that settled on his clothes when he was in his room and hadn’t had enough time to go away yet. Alli sprayed A LOT of it. I was making a game plan to get some smelly lotion or oils from someone to help cover the smell but by the time sacrament was over the luckily the smell was gone. By the time we got home the smell was gone from the house too. I did one more round of Febreeze in Matthew’s room so that he was safe from being the stinky kid after sleeping in his room all night. Allison’s remaining spray may or may not have been misplaced. All in all though I think she felt like it was a great purchase.
I think for a post every now and then I am going to pick an event that everyone (or most) of our family has done and compare them or write what we remember about those times. The first one I am going to do it kindergarten.
I’ll go first. I think these memories I have are from kindergarten…but they could be mixed with other memories and I don’t realize it. That’s the product of age plus memories I guess. Like the time when I was telling my mom about our trip to Nauvoo when I was younger and she told me I had never been to Nauvoo. I told her all about the trip and she showed me a picture book with pictures of the events that I had described. Apparently at some point I looked through the pictures and it became a memory of something I did instead of pictures I had seen. Anyway, I digress. Back to kindergarten.
I lived in Loa Utah, in a white house that I believe was on the corner of the street that was a straight shot down to the school. It would have been 1987. I want to say my teachers name was Mrs. Taft but I would have to look that up in a picture book to be sure and I am to lazy to do that right now. I remember learning our letters and she had a little blow up alphabet character for each letter and we could take turns bringing them home sometimes. I remember swinging on the swings and being ‘married’ to someone if we were swinging exactly together. I think we had a nap time. We did have snack time and it was chocolate or regular milk with something to eat. You were not allowed to blow bubbles in your milk or they would take your milk away. I remember blowing bubbles one day without really being aware of it and they took my milk away. I wondered how they even knew I was doing it. I remember wondering how adults knew a lot of things growing up. It makes me chuckle now when I can tell my kids are thinking the same thing. It is usually pretty obvious but in a kids mind you think you are being so sly. I remember our neighbor Clayton that was my age. He had a rabbit and I remember him explaining how to tell if it was a boy or girl and I had no idea what he was talking about because all I could see was fur. I remember telling my mom that I was sick one day when I wasn’t and I thought I was pretty slick because she let me stay home and lay on the couch. I was highly disappointed when everyone got home from school and I felt better and felt good enough to go play with everyone. my mom said I should probably stay on the couch for the rest of the day to make sure I didn’t get sick again. The only other thing I remember about kindergarten in that my dog followed me to school one day and was barking at people. I was worried they were going to take him to the pound but my mom came and got him and took him home.
Ryan lived in Manhattan Kansas. He would have started kindergarten in 1984. He remembers racing out to the jungle gym for recess because everyone tried to race and get the spot on top. His teachers name was Ms Crane. His mom took him to school and he doesn’t really remember anything about in the class and learning. He remembers recesses and looking forward to them. He met his friend Jake Sumners in kindergarten and they are still friends to this day. The only other thing he remembers is how to get to his class room when he got to school.
Matthew went to Scarborough Elementary in Olathe Kansas and had afternoon kindergarten with Mrs Herl in 2012. He says some of his memories are also PE and recess related. He learned how to play color tag and found out that he was a pretty fast runner. His favorite things to do were PE with Mr Simpson. Toilet tag was another favorite that he taught them to play. It is basically freeze tag but when you get tagged you have to put one knee on the ground and hold your hand out. If someone runs by you and ‘flushes’ your hand you can unfreeze and start running again. The first fire drill scared him because he didn’t understand what a drill was. He remembers cutting his knee open when he slid on the rocks at recess and thought he was so tough because he didn’t even know it and it didn’t hurt. There were only 11 kids in his class and of those 11 only 3 were boys. They had two recesses. They had a Halloween costume parade and he was Optimus Prime. When they had career day and were supposed to dress up as what they wanted to be when they grew up he dressed up as a zoo keeper. One of his favorite things when he was in kindergarten was animals. He loved to watch the Nat Geo Wild Channel and his favorite TV show was Wild Kratz. All the parents sent in a couple boxes of something for snacks and if anyone was allergic to any foods they had to bring their own snack.
Allison went to half day morning kindergarten with Ms Ryder in 2015 at Prairie Creek Elementary. For her first Halloween at school she was a Spanish dancer, mostly because she liked the dress, not because she liked dancing. They had one 15 minute recess. I have asked several times what other things she liked about kindergarten and she has repeatedly told me nothing…so this is a short paragraph.
Emilee started full day kindergarten in 2018 with Mrs Pahl also at Prairie Creek. Half day kindergarten is no longer an option. I had to sign a waiver saying any snacks I send to school for Emilee will only be eaten by her and not contain any nuts or be made in a place that has nuts. She has a morning and afternoon recess for 15 minutes each. She is making friends and enjoys it once she gets there but is still a little nervous about going in the morning.
Sometimes I laugh with my friends about how parenting changes from kid to kid. I’m not talking about the differences caused by each kid because they are a different kid. I’m talking about the things that you wouldn’t see a reason for doing different from kid to kid but there seems to be a pretty steady pattern anyway, I will leave it for the reader to figure that pattern out. The reasons for the pattern as you read on are numerous and debatable. Some of the more ‘popular’ or ‘obvious’ I have come up with are; experience, inexperience, perseverance, attrition, hind sight, fortitude, wisdom, time, sanity, lack of sanity, and the amount of sleep to required effort ratio. In no way do the patterns imply or mean that one kid was loved more or less. I love all my kids and they were all cared for and loved and the day I finally got to meet them and bring them home were some of the happiest days of my life. Mostly this is just for my kids to laugh at and compare the ‘unfair’ and ‘unjust’ discrepancies in their childhoods.
Pregnancy.
Birthing Class.
Birth plan.
Pain Management.
Packing bag.
Going to the hospital.
Husband during labor.
Matthew- Eat Chipotle in front of me while I am in labor, starving and only allowed ice chips. Have to go sit down with his head between his knees and breathe in a bag when I get an epideral.
Allison- Sneak me a bite of his Chipotle while I am in labor, starving and only allowed ice chips because he feels guilty for eating in front of me last time, I throw it up. Have to go sit down with his head between his knees and breathe in a bag when I get an epideral.
Emilee- Eat Chipotle in front of me while I am in labor, starving and only allowed ice chips, refuse to share with me when I ask because last time I threw up and ‘that was gross’. Have to go sit down with his head between his knees and breathe in a bag when I get an epideral.
Babies first night in hospital.
First outing.
Bottle/Nursing Starting Solids
Toys for baby.
The kids have been in school a little over a week now. Everyone is still adjusting and getting used to the new schedules.
Emilee. It is a big change for her to go to all day kindergarten. The thing she keeps telling me the most is, “It is sooooooo looooong!” She is mentally and physically tired when she gets home. The first few days she came home and immediately laid on the couch and didn’t move for a show or two. Then she started coming home and having to play with her toys right away. I think it is her way of unwinding and processing her new environment. She has always been pretty good playing but it is a very pressing need for her when she comes home. She gets a little anxious at night when she is going to sleep on on the way to school in the morning about going but once she is there she does great. I ate lunch with her last week and she seems to be making friends and having a fun time. Several of her classmates said hi to her and waved when they walked past. She likes taking lunch and getting school lunch. She is growing up. I think I hold on to her a little more than I did the others because she is my last. She seems so young to me still but she is the same age Matthew was and a year older than Allison was when she started kindergarten.
Allison. She seems to have jumped into everything the easiest. This is her fourth year with the same group of kids so she is getting to know them pretty good. She has a young new teacher, which for some reason she has always wanted. Her best friend Carlee is at the new elementary school this year and I was a little worried about that. I asked her who she was playing with at recess and if she had made any friends. In true Alli fashion she told me she had enough friends and played with them at recess when she wanted to. She has been a little more tired than usual but otherwise seems to be doing great. I think this year will be a little more challenging for her which is good. She is smart and I don’t feel like she hasn’t been challenged as much as she could so far in her school. She is in a hurry to grow up so when she feels like she is getting more responsibility she usually does well with that. Having more homework will be more of a challenge for both of us though. She tends to take all evening doing it a little bit at a time which drives me crazy. I need to let her figure it out on her own but it is hard for me to step back sometimes, especially when there isn’t really a consequence at school for it. I think this year will be different.
Matthew. He started 6th grade which is middle school. He changes classes, has a locker, dresses out for PE, and rides the bus. He seemed to be doing fine, and reported that everything was fine, but after about the third day it was pretty evident that he was a little more stressed out then he was letting on. It takes him about 15 minutes to get ready for school in the morning. The bus picks him up in front of our house at 7:07. He was getting up at 6:15, I told him after the first day or two that he could probably sleep in 15 or 20 more minutes if he wanted and he lost it that he would miss the bus. We have been eating breakfast at 6:45 and reading scriptures and he starts panicking that he is going to miss the bus if we aren’t done by 6:55. He has had many meltdowns about…anything and everything. He finally said that he felt really unorganized and didn’t know how to keep track of everything. Once we got that figured out he seemed a little better. He is playing football and baseball on top of school, home, and youth night too. I have told him that we are never doing two sports again because it is to much. I think he will be fine with that though. Football is not as great as he thought it would be (thank goodness!!) he isn’t as aggressive as he needs to be for it. I think in another week or two he will be settled in and have the hang of everything.
Summer ended and we have started a new school year!
Matthew is starting his first year of middle school in 6th grade. We went and walked his schedule and practiced opening his locker. The bus picks him up our front at 7:07 am. He wakes up at 6:15 and is ready by 6:30 then stresses that he is going to miss the bus if I don’t let him go out to the bus stop before 7. Then he gets home from school at 4:15. They added a last minute PE class as an option for an elective. He wanted to drop art and take the PE class instead but we talked him into sticking with art because he already has a PE class and he plays plenty of sports.He thought he would be the only boy in art class but was pleasantly surprised to find more boys than girls in art. He figured out how dressing out for PE works and seems to be settling in pretty good. The school gives everyone a computer that is theirs for the school year. He thinks its pretty cool to have his own computer.
Allison is in 3rd grade this year. They have new chairs that don’t look like chairs at all and spin, she thought that was great. Her teacher is very young and this might be her first year teaching but Allison seems to like her. She was ready to go to school and sits by a few people that she already knew. Her best friend Carlee is going to the new elementary school that was just built so I was a little worried she would struggle with finding some new friends but she has seemed to do great. She likes being the one in charge walking home since she is the oldest now. It has only been a few days but she has been doing a good job at being kind and watching out for Emilee. Her lunch is one of the earliest at 11 am, last year it was at noon and she was always starving to death so she was excited to have an earlier lunch this year. She wanted me to walk her to class and then leave. No need for staying around or dragging anything out.
Emilee started kindergarten! She was really excited when we got her a new backpack and shoes and picked out her new outfit for the first day. When we went back to school night and realized that I would not be going to school with her she back peddled a little and said she no longer wanted to go to school. She was pretty shy when we got there the first day and hid her face behind her hair, but has been doing great. She likes deciding if she should eat a school lunch or take her own. She is still adjusting to how long it is and when it is bedtime says she doesn’t want to go to school but is always up and ready in the morning. The girls wake up at 6:45 for breakfast, prayers, and scriptures. That was a big concern for Emilee, she is not an early riser but she seems to be doing ok with it so far.
I am adjusting to my new normal, with no kids home during the day. It is exciting and I look forward to having the day to get my stuff done and then be able to focus just on my kids when they get home. I had a little more of the panic, nervous, anxious feelings though then I expected. Sending all three of my kids off to school all day for someone else to take care of, influence them and make sure they are safe makes my anxiety go up.
Allison turned 8 on her last birthday so we had her baptism this past weekend. Both grandparents were able to come and Ross and Lauren’s family came, plus a few friends. It was a pretty good day. A year ago she was telling us she would never get baptized. Then a little before her birthday she decided it was something she did want to do. She helped me pick our her new scriptures for church and a carrying case for them. Her baptism was at 5 pm on Saturday so we spent the day at our house, visiting and playing with cousins and eating lunch together. She looked beautiful and did a great job. When her dad gave her the gift of the Holy Ghost he told her she was a valiant and tenacious spirit. I loved those words to describe her. Sometimes when we talk or teach Allison something about church she gets irritable and prickly and doesn’t want to listen or do it. She didn’t want to have a FHE on baptism, practice how to do the baptism, or invite anyone to her baptism. I think it is mostly the source of the information. One more thing that mom and dad are ‘talking at her about’. She doesn’t like to talk about how she feels or explain things that we read to me but I think that she feels the spirit and somethings are sinking in. It was really sweet after her confirmation she shook everyone’s hand or hugged them. When she got to her dad she hugged him and just held on for a little while. That is not very typical of Allison. After her baptism and confirmation she wanted to have donuts and root beer for refreshments. Grandma and Grandpa Jones gave her a picture of a path through a forest to remind her to stay on the right path. Grandma and Grandpa Terry gave her a necklace that was an 8 to remind her of her special day. Dad and I gave her scriptures and a little book to write down stuff about her day.
As a little side note, while Alli was getting changed after her baptism, her friend Michael Dunn asked his mom to look up her birthstone. She told him it was a ruby. He said, “Ok, I am going to give her a ruby with diamonds around it for her wedding ring.” They have been friends since they were born and their older siblings tease them that they are boyfriend and girlfriend, which bothers neither of them at all.
I have some ‘random’ pictures on my phone from this summer that I thought I would put in my blog.
These first ones are a double rainbow. We have had lots of rainbows this summer! Big beautiful full ones and at least two double ones that I can remember. Pictures don’t do it justice of course but it helps you remember.
Then we have Joaquin, Matthew, and Jake in that order. These buddies play on the same baseball team and they clicked immediately when they met. They have a lot of fun together and work hard at baseball together. Joaquin and Matthew play short stop and second and they are fun to watch. They are both little speed demons and are athletic and make some great plays. Joaquin’s family is going to be living in the Philippines for the next three years. They will come home for a 6-8 weeks in the summer and Joaquin will play with us when he is here but it is sad to see him go. They had one last sleep over together before he left. They stayed up late, played way to much video games, had pillow fights, talked baseball, and stayed fueled with pop tarts. An incredible night in Matthew’s words. 🙂
Emilee and dad were taking silly pictures on his phone together the other night and he ended up with this one of her and him among the silly ones. He told me he loves this picture and I need to do something with it. I think that means he wants a physical copy of it. He has a picture of Matthew about a week old that he keeps in his wallet, and a favorite of Alli and him making silly faces at work. Isn’t that so sweet!?! Ryan says he isn’t the sentimental type but he is. Pictures and t-shirts, he can’t get rid of either of them. 🙂
Emilee usually sleeps with the clothes she is wearing the next day under her pajamas-for time saving purposes obviously. When she wakes up in the morning she takes her pajamas off then usually comes and crawls in bed with me. I woke up the other morning and she wasn’t laying next to me so I went to see who was awake and who was still sleeping. Sometimes Alli likes to sleep in her bean bag instead of her bed and when Emilee woke up she decided to snuggle Alli in her bean bag and dozed off. I sat there and watched them like a creepy person and enjoyed their positive sister interaction. We are past the mid point of summer, happy sister moments are fewer and farther between the constant fighting and picking at each other. I will take it when I can get it, even if they are not conscious.
We finally made it to the Penguin Park. We invited several people to go with us but it never worked out with schedules so we decided to just go ourselves one morning. It was a 40 minute drive. The kids thought it was cool but it just isn’t as fun to not have a bunch of people to play with at the park (heaven forbid you make friends with someone already there) so after 30 minutes the last kiddo (Emilee) came and said she was done playing. I think I have decided to not do park destinations for a while.
I tried to start some creative summer fun the other day to get the kids doing something different and stop begging me to play or watch electronics. I was hoping they would take off with it and do it on their own but instead they humored me and I kind of made them do it. Allison got mad before we started filming and wouldn’t participate anymore, but she was invited. Thanks for being good sports boys!
We tried to do some service related activities this summer. One of our favorites is the Harvesters Food Service facility. Most of the time the youngest you can be in 8 to help so Emilee wasn’t able to go with us yet but Matthew and Allison love it. We were able to go three times. The first time it was just the three of us. Then after that we tried to take friends with us. This last time we went we had a full car. Five boys, two girls and one me. I felt a little out numbered with that many kids. It was a little hard to keep some of them on task the whole time but it was still fun. It is good service, way better than video games and boredom. We grabbed some lunch afterwards and took everyone home. We also found a fun project that we can do at our house whenever we have time and that everyone can do together. We decorate book marks, place mats, and lunch sacks for the Meals on Wheels program. When we have a bunch decorated we drop them off at the office and they use them for the meals. Emilee can help us do that one too so it is perfect for Sundays, FHE, or times when they are bored.
This last picture is Allison and her friend Michael Dunn. These two are two peas in a pod. They get each other that is for sure. They have known each other since they were born and they tell their parents all the time that they are going to get married someday. Our families went swimming together for one of our last days of summer. We were there all afternoon, the first little bit was a little rough for these two. They had to work their grumpiness out and get along with people. Not each other, they were both having issues with other people. This is both of them in time out taking a break until they can be nice. About two minutes after this picture was taken they went back and played just fine for three more hours.
Dear Allison,
This year is a big year for you. There is a lot of growing up in third grade. You are getting old enough that more will be expected and required of you. Your teacher will expect more responsibility from you. I want you to be a happy person Allison. Sometimes you might not think that, but I promise you it is true. I want nothing but the best for you. I want you to have real life long happiness. You are a sweet special girl to me. I LOVE YOU!! So, here are a few things I want you to remember as you start your third grade school year.
Pick good friends. Friends are important. Friends feel like everything, but if you don’t choose wisely, you can easily end up where you don’t want to be. Pick friends that have high standards. That think learning is cool, and that make you feel good about yourself. Pick friends that aren’t into being mean, and controlling you, and putting others down. Pick friends that want to do good, and be kind, even when someone isn’t kind back. Remember to be a good friend to others too. If you are kind and happy, you will attract kind and happy people. You are lucky to have a sister and a brother to be your friend your whole life. They can always be a friend when you need one.
Be yourself. Just because all your friends want to do something, doesn’t mean you have to. True friends will admire your confidence in being true to yourself. You are blessed with confidence Allison. I love that about you. Sometimes I think you feel like you have to be perfect and know everything. You don’t sweetheart. It is okay to admit you don’t know something. If you aren’t sure about something it is okay to ask for help. It will actually help you be more confident to recognize when you need a little extra help. It is good to let others help you.
Take care of your body. You do a good job at getting ready and wanting to look nice when you go places. That doesn’t mean having the trendiest clothes or the coolest shoes, or looking like someone else. You are a beautiful girl Allison. I want you to feel pretty and special and comfortable. Don’t stress about what everyone else wears or how they do their hair and having to be like them. You are beautiful the way you are. I love helping you do your hair and make sure you have clean nice clothes to wear. I want to help you. I love it when you accept my help. Your body is a gift, feed it good healthy food, drink water, and keep it clean. You are gifted at gymnastics. Use your talent to have fun, learn, and grow. Challenge yourself to learn and be able to do new things. Let your coaches help challenge you. Remember to take care of your body physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. All are very important.
School is important. Remember to enjoy learning and really learn stuff. Not just learn it enough to pass the test then forget it. I wish I had taken more time to enjoy learning when I was in school. It is hard to imagine now but when you are done with school, you will miss it sometimes. Having no responsibilities other than learning doesn’t happen as much the older you get, if ever. Enjoy that opportunity now.
Have fun. You’re going to be adjusting to a lot of new experiences in school, and it’s important to have fun. Try not to worry about being perfect, and relax into everything that comes your way. You only get to be this age once– you don’t need to grow up too fast.
Talk to us. If you’ll talk to me, I promise I’ll try to be understanding. I’ve been there. Friends hurt my feelings. I hurt my friends’ feelings. I made mistakes. I also know you’ll hear and see a lot of things that might make you scared, or worried, or confused. Talk to your dad and I about them, and I promise, you’ll feel better. Your dad and I love you like no one else does, and we always want to help you.
Don’t get wrapped up in girl drama. Sometimes girls aren’t nice. I wish I could stop you from ever having someone say something mean to you but I can’t. I can help you when you feel sad or your feelings are hurt though. Always remember to not be the mean girl too. Remember how you feel when your feelings are hurt and don’t make others feel that way by being mean, even when it is hard. You are a funny, smart, creative girl Allison. I love it when you share your kindness and happy side with me. Other people love it too.
Be the example. It’s hard being the example, and sometimes it sucks. But, people will look up to you for standing out, making good choices, and being kind even when you feel uncomfortable or uncool. Kids can be mean. So, stand up to the bullies, speak out against things you know are wrong, and don’t be afraid to be different. Even when it sucks. You might miss out on things, but I promise it’s not the end of the world, even though it feels like it. Be the example when you can, because you are brave, and strong.
Remember that we love you. I may not always know exactly how you feel, but I was your age once, and I remember the fun and not so fun things about third grade. You are never alone. You have a family that loves you, and even though we fight and argue sometimes you are one of my greatest treasures Allison. I love you more than I can explain. No mistake you make will ever make me feel different. YOU WILL ALWAYS BE LOVED. No matter what. Your Heavenly Father loves you too. No matter what situation or where you are, you are never alone. Heavenly Father is always there and will here and answer your prayers. I know this Allison. I promise you this. There have been many times in my life when He has comforted me, helped me, protected me, guided me, and reminded me that I am never alone and He loves me. Learn to listen, recognize and follow the promptings you receive from the Holy Ghost. You get them daily. It takes a lot of practice, but you are so amazing and smart and I know you can do anything you put your mind too.
Enjoy third grade my beautiful girl! You’ve got parents at home that always have your back. You are a power house Allison. You have the tenacity, brains, courage, and confidence to do so much good in your life, and bring so much happiness to those around you and yourself if you choose. You are beautiful inside and out. Don’t be shy about showing others how kind and thoughtful and sweet you are. I know we sometimes drive each other crazy but I wouldn’t trade you for anyone else in the entire galaxy. I love being your mom. I am blessed to be your mom. I love you!
I remember having count downs for the next exciting thing when I was younger. Shoot, I still do it sometimes. It is different when you are a kid though. Allison’s count down for her birthday finally arrived! We only do a big party every other year or so and this year was a party year. She debated on a party at Main Event and doing bowling and laser tag, or Urban Air and doing a glow in the dark trampoline party. She decided on Urban Air. Sometimes it is a little tricky finding people home in July but we had a fun party with ten friends, lots of pizza, cake, glow sticks, presents, and fun. I think she had a great time and it was fun to see her having fun. Her friends know her well and gave her all kinds of stuff to make all different kinds of slimes. She was beyond ecstatic.
For her actual birthday Allison gave me a list of things that would make her birthday the ‘best birthday ever’ some of it was pretty specific. First up was her cousin Leah spending the night the day before her birthday and the day of her birthday. Then she had a friend with her on her birthday the moment she woke up until she went to bed. She requested crapes for breakfast. Her and Leah like to cook together so they helped me make them. Then filled them with powdered sugar, brown sugar, and whip cream, and blueberries so they would be healthier. Their words not mine. They played with slime and makeup for a bit after breakfast, then we met the rest of the cousins at the Olathe Community Center Pool to go swimming. She has wanted to go to an indoor pool for a long time. We have four neighborhood pools that we can swim at so I am not very willing to pay to go to another pool. I gave in for her birthday though and we all went and had a great time swimming at an indoor pool. It was nice to not bake in the sun and have to worry about sun screen.
When we were done swimming we went home and had cake and ice cream, followed by opening presents. Allison requested mini chocolate bundt cakes with hot fudge so it looked like a lava cake and everyone could have their own. She also wanted her cake to have some sort of decoration on it that was not a candle and was not laying flat on the cake. I found a happy birthday banner that she thought was perfect. By the time we got the candles and banner on the cake there wasn’t much room left. I liked her individual cake idea, great idea for birthday cakes so you don’t get a cake that is blown all over, kids especially can get a little free with their saliva when blowing out birthday candles. We opened presents after her cake. She got sequence color changing back pack and pillow, birthday money, a soap making kit, tile painting kit, squishies, and more slime stuff, oh and a whoopi cushion that she had her heart set on too. I haven’t figured out if her fascination with less appealing bodily functions is to get a rise out of me or simply extra funny to her, either way she never fails to bring up her ‘potty humor’ whenever she feels like it. Most of her gifts are probably pretty self explanatory except for the squishies. I will fill you in on an 8 year old must have. A squishy is basically really soft foam in the shape of any number of things. Food is a popular one. You squish it, and it bounces back to hits original shape. That is it. I think it originated as something to help relieve anxiety and has expanded to be a collectible toy like stuffed animals or barbies.
After presents and digesting our cake a little more Allison picked dinner at Pizza Street and invited her cousins too. She loves pizza, so the buffet is great but the reason she really likes to go to Pizza Street is their cinnamon hot rolls with icing. She loves them. She got her fill and then we came back home her and Leah played with her new toys the rest of the night. When it was all said and done she said it was a great day and she had a fun time. Mission accomplished!
Now we are focusing on the next big part of turning 8- her baptism! We ordered her scriptures and got a white dress to wear. Aunt Lauren was really nice and took her out and took some nice pictures of her in her dress. She is growing up fast. Tonight she went to her first Activity Days activity with the girls in our ward. She is very excited to get to go to that all on her own.
Emilee and I got to hang out together while Matthew and Alli were at theater camp. Just list old times. While she loves hanging out with me she likes being like her older siblings and wanted to do a camp too. I asked her what she wanted to do for her camp and she said, “Go to Ms. Sheila’s” Ms Sheila is one of the people that watches her while I work sometimes. Which sounds about right, I have tried a few different activities like soccer and basketball for Emilee and she is not a fan. She just wants a few buddies to run around and play with and do whatever their imaginations come up with. I was happy to oblige her wish so for Monday and Wednesday she went to ‘Ms Sheila Camp’ while I had two days to catch up on my to do list-and a little R & R. The other days we tried to do something different than the usual too. We invited her bestie Reese over to play one of the days. We went to Crown Center and did the 50 States Exhibit and Kaleidoscope by Hallmark with some friends. Kaleidoscope is basically an amazing room decorated for kids with tons of different stations for them to be creative at. They just let them in and they have 50 minutes to craft to their hearts content however they want. They had a great time playing together and I got to catch up with my friends too. It is nice when your kids friends are parented by your friends too. We finished off that day with a meal at the train restaurant, Fritz’s. It is a favorite for kids. It is a burger and fries place that you get to order over the telephone at your table from, and then it is delivered to your table by trains that are driving around on the tracks above you while you are eating. The food is okay at best but that doesn’t matter because they bring your food to you by train.
The last day we played at home together and did a favorite activity of both of ours ‘snuggle and a Disney movie’. We had a good week. It was nice to get a little bit of one on one time before she starts school all day in the Fall. The pictures of her in the red cape tug at my heart strings a little. She bounced out on the porch making her ‘pewpewpew’ sounds with the squirt bottle. I asked her what she was doing and she said she was a super hero so she was getting the bad guys. She has a great imagination and I love seeing her use it. It will be a sad day when she outgrows it and there are no more super hero’s, dragons, puppies, mermaids, or whatever else she comes up with running around the house.
When it was time for the showcase she was excited to cheer them on. She wanted to dress up a little so she could be like Allison. This is an irritation to Allison, but I tell her she needs to get used to it and make sure she is setting a good example for her sister because she is going to copy her a lot. Allison gave me a big eye roll and a ‘whatever’ as her and her attitude walked off. Emilee loved the show. I asked her if she would want to do it sometime and she said she would think about it. She likes to live vicariously through others it seems.
Actually she is the most shy of any of my kids. A trait they have unfortunately inherited from Ryan and I when we were younger. Matthew is a close second but he is getting a little more confident. Allison doesn’t have a shy bone in her, anywhere…ever. Both Matthew and Emilee have been caught sending Alli to knock on a door for a lost ball, or ask an adult a question for them, and when they are together Allison does all the talking for everyone if I let her while Matthew and Emilee stand behind her and try to avoid eye contact. Allison’s boldness comes in handy for all of us. Just the other night we went to dinner with Ross and Lauren and Texas Roadhouse. We waited the 40 minutes, plus 10. Ross checked on the wait and they said it would be another 10-15. So 20 minutes later we let Allison go ask how long our table would take, I told her she had to be polite. I don’t know if it was a coincidence or not but they buzzed us shortly after she went in to talk to them. Allison can be determined and I like letting other people besides me to have a turn sometimes. One year when we were handing out cookies for Christmas to friends, the kids were taking turns ringing the bell and handing the cookies to whoever answered the door and saying Merry Christmas. Emilee refused to get out of the car for all of them except Ms. Cristi. Matthew would ring the bell and hold the cookies out and then crank his head around as far as he could to avoid eye contact and mumble Merry Christmas and make a run for the car as soon as they took the cookies. Allison checked her hair and stance before allowing the doorbell to be rung for her. Then clear her throat and say in her loudest voice, “Merry Christmas Ho! Ho! Ho!” when they answered the door.
Matthew and Alli did a theater camp last week. It was a day camp and they learned the songs and some choreography to several songs from “The Greatest Showman”. They practiced 9-3 everyday Monday thru Friday and then on Friday they put on their showcase.
They both had a friend to do it with. I think I have decided that when I have my kids try something new in the future I will have them do it without a friend. When they try something new with a friend sometimes the influence from the friend affects their opinions before they make their own mind up if they like it or not. Or they are so distracted talking with their friend they don’t pay attention as much. I think if they decide they like something they will make new friends with the same interests while they are doing it.
Matthew was a little skeptical about doing it. He was not interested at all on Monday because there was a birthday party he wanted to be at instead. I split the difference with him and he went to the party late and left camp early. After that though he really enjoyed it. Allison volunteered him to try out for a solo and he got one. I think he sang it a thousand times the rest of the week before he did it. He was also one of the oldest boys there and he is coordinated and has a little muscle to him so when they practiced some tricks on the silks, he was picked to do it for the show. He explained to me several times how one slip would flip him upside down and crack his head wide open. I assured him I was confident in his abilities which he agreed would not be an issue. 🙂
Allison needed a little reminding after the first day that her job was to participate and listen not hang out in the bathroom with her friend and chat all day. She learned her parts and new the songs and dances really well but she has no interest in impressing anyone or putting in a little extra work so she just didn’t care to go the extra mile. She did know all the ‘drama’ that went on with everyone and everything. I don’t know how she does it.
My part was dressing them both up which I had a great time with. Matthew wore whatever I bought him and looked great. Alli requested a few changes with what I originally picked out for her but was all about dressing up and having her makeup done. They were both good sports about it and looked great. Matthew nailed his solo and he and Alli didn’t miss a beat on their dancing.
When it was all said and done they said they had a fun week. Allison is the one I was hoping would love it and want to keep doing it. I have always thought that she would like to be involved in theater. She said she wants to do one with less singing. This one was all singing so I might try another one with her and see if she likes it. The have several theater classes you can take to learn and try different things. I need to look into it more. Matthew asked me on his own if I would look and see what other shows they did and depending on what they are he might be interested. He is working on being a well rounded kid. He is one of those people that is good at whatever they do. So far at least he stays humble with it and has his genuine kind personality.
Matthew is the second soloist in the video above.
The day after the girls and I got back from Florida, the kids and I were going to go with Lauren and her kids to Nauvoo IL for a two day trip. That night we were both talking on the phone and it just wasn’t working out that great for either of our schedules so we decided to bag it and reschedule for another time and do something closer to home. We decided to try the water and theme park in KC. Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun.
We got there when it opened that morning and did the theme park first. It’s the first big theme park any of our kids have gone too. It was pretty fun. We had varying degrees of adventurousness but everyone tried something. Jovee was willing but to short for some rides. In another year or two she will probably be the most adventurous of all of them. All of my kids were for whatever rides they could go on. We started with some smaller rides more like carnival rides, then we got to a real roller coaster called the Cork Screw. It goes through some loops and then stops and comes back the way it came but backwards. Emilee went on it with Aunt Lauren. When the ride was over she had a look of ‘oh my gosh, what just happened to me’ on her face, then she looked and me and got the biggest grin and gave me a thumbs up. She thought it was pretty awesome. We went on a water ride and then my three wanted to go on the biggest ride in the park called the Mamba. Emilee was tall enough and really wanted to, I was a little hesitant to let her but she was insistent that she would be fine and had loved the other ones. So she did it. She had the same look on her face as the first one when she got back but when I asked her how it went she started crying and had a little break down. It was a little to intense for her. Mom fail. I think she would have been better if I had gone with her but I was watching Leah and Ethan and I didn’t want to go on it myself either. I am not a big roller coaster fan. She said she didn’t want to go on anymore rides but we found a nice easy spiny, floaty feeling one and she went on it with me. She kept saying, ‘This is so nice, I like this, this is fun.’ I think it started out trying to convince herself but by the end of the ride she meant it.
It was pretty stinking hot and we were all melting and about at our wits end from the heat so after a few hours we went to the car and ate our lunch then headed over to Oceans of Fun to cool off and get in the water. It is a pretty nice water park. We let the older boys and girls go off and try different slides and areas and Lauren and I stayed with the Littles. We did slides, the wave pool, obstacles, play areas, it was a nice afternoon. We stayed pretty much until it closed. The kids loved it. It was a successful fun new summer adventure! They all slept like a rock that night. Emilee usually sleeps in but she reached a new record of 11 am the next morning. Matthew and Alli weren’t up before nine either.
When we were in Florida for Spring Break our beach day was not good. It was pretty cold and the water was freezing. We were only there about 45 minutes to basically say we went to the beach.
When we got to Florida after our rv-cation the weather was perfect for the beach so we decided to drive Moose (the RV) to the beach and enjoy a good beach day.
It was wonderful. We set up the canopy so we had some shade in the beautiful white sand for the kids to play in. The water was so warm. We didn’t really even need towels. There wasn’t that much of a temperature difference being in or out of the water. We went out into the water and played in the waves, but we settled at a little tide pool area that was pretty shallow for the kids to play in. They covered a rock in sand and decorated it with shells, splashed and played in the water, and of course collected shells. Usually we just see clam shells, but this beach had lots of the little tiny conch shells. I told the girls to only pick their most favorite ones because we didn’t have a lot of room in our suitcase. I then watched as Emilee started picking shells up as fast as she could exclaiming how pretty they all were and she just couldn’t leave any behind.
We were there for a few hours then we rinsed off and went back to the RV to eat a nice lunch with the A/C running. Having an RV is a pretty handy way to travel.
Kenny stopped at Bahama Bucks, which is an icee shop on our way home. We all got a delicious icee and finished the trip home. Most of us were asleep by the time we got home.
Once we were home the girls showered up and relaxed while Sherri and Kenny made dinner and I cleaned the RV up for the next renter that is picking it up on Monday. Another big help of our RV-cation is I have a lot more hands on knowledge now for the RV in general and for the whole process of preparing it and sending it off with a renter. When Moose left on Monday we have all of our RV’s out on the road for the next month. They have all been out a few times but this will be the first time all three are out for a while. Pretty awesome.
It was nice to have a few days in Florida before we came home. Once again I love seeing my sisters and spending time with them, but I am always sad when I leave that we don’t live closer to each other. Thank goodness for modern travel options but it would still be wonderful to live close enough to see each other whenever we want instead of a couple times a year.
So far I would say our summer has been going great!
Our theme for the summer ‘Work Hard then Play Hard’ has been going pretty well. We have to jump start it again when we are gone out of town for a few days or even if I work it gets thrown off. I guess it might be more accurate to say that if I insist on it, they are cooperating for the most part, and it is working. The overall quality of their efforts and work is improving too, which was one of my biggest grievences. The electronic chore chart seemed to be the key for them and me.
Along with working on improving our work ethics we have done a lot of fun too. We are chipping away at our bucket list of things we want to do this summer.
Swimming, has been going successfully. We have gone as often as we can. I love having three swimmers now too. Last summer I hired a lady in our neighborhood to do private lessons for the kids and she had Emilee swimming after a few lessons. My kids are not scared of the water and I have found for them that if I want them to learn to swim 5-6 private lessons is better than years of summer group swim lessons. At least here in Olathe Kansas. I usually have a brief 1-2 lessons to refresh everyones swimming skills or work on better technique if they are more advanced. I didn’t get around to it this summer though and Emilee keeps asking to take swimming lessons because she ‘can’t remember how’ so I did sign up her and Alli up for a few private swim lesson through the YMCA but still haven’t heard back from them. They have been getting better on their own just going to the pool a lot so I might end up not worrying about it.
We went to a pottery painting place a few weeks ago. We have done it before but we found a new place to try. Everyone picks out their own piece of pottery and then can paint it however they want. When we are all done painting we leave it there and they fire and glaze it for us and we pick it up when its done. Everyone likes it and has a fun time but Matthew could take it or leave it and Emilee suprisingly gets bored with it pretty quick. Alli and I spend a lot more time and detail so it takes us a lot longer. We were annoyed and feeling rushed by the end because Matthew and Emilee were done and not very patient waiting for us. We decided we would save that for a Alli and me day out next time we did it and leave the other two home.
Matthew had a busy week earlier this month. He wanted to sign up for a baseball camp and it happened to be the same time as the Vacation Bible Camp (VBC) he went to with his friend Finn that invited him. He spent the morning at baseball camp and then he ate lunch in the car on the way to VBC when I picked him up. He liked basball camp even though it was really hot. They had some new tips and drills for him that he learned. His favorite part of VBC camp is the food packing drive they do for Harvesters. They get to assemble bags of food for people that need them. They also have a shaving cream fight and fire truck hose everyone off on the last day that is fun.
Alli has been working hard on her gymnastics. The gym offers 2 hour camps throughout the summer to focus on more specific skills so she likes to go to the tumbling ones. She has her front and back hand springs down pretty good. She can do them on the trampoline, she just needs to be a little braver to do them on the floor. She does them great with a spotter too.
We go to the library a little more often in the summer than we usually do. They have a statue of a bull dog that they hide somewhere in the library on Fridays. That is the day they like to go because if you find him you get to pick out a prize.
Emilee went to Target with me the other day and was dying to have me record her doing one of her ‘most favorite things ever’ so here it is for your enjoyment…Emilee slides on a red cement ball!!
Jovee had her birthday party at Chuck E Cheese this year. She gets to pick a friend to go in the ticket booth and try and get as many tickets as they can in a minute or something. I thought it was pretty cute when I heard she had picked Matthew to help her. Clever girl.
At the end of the year Alli’s Girl Scout Troop uses any of the leftover funds they have from selling cookies to do a bigger activity together. They had the girls vote between spending the night at the zoo, or spending the night at a horse ranch and then going on a horse ride the next day. The majority of the vote was for horseback riding. That is what Alli voted for much to her delight.
I asked Alli if she wanted me to go with her or let her do it alone. It could go either way with her. She said she wanted me to come so I signed up with her. It has been about a year since either of us has camped. We went camping as a family last summer. This is our first just her and I camping together though. We picked up her bestie Carlee and her mom and carpooled together to the ranch. The girls have actually rode horses at the ranch we stayed at before but this is the first time they spent the night.
We set up camp when we got there. I brought our little three person tent so that only her and I could fit in it. (Cranky lady-yes. Happier camper-yes.) I started setting it up a bit away from the other tents (for noise purposes) and went to get some stuff from the car. When I got back one of the leaders had moved my tarp and started staking it next to the other tents with barely enough space to walk between the tents. She smiled at me and said something like she wants us to all be cozy and in the action together. Later that evening the same leader announced she would be sleeping in her car instead of the tents-not very cozy of her if you ask me.
The leaders brought all the food so it was nice to not have to worry about packing all that stuff. They said to being a water bottle which we did, but they neglected to mention that meant and water to refill it the whole time. Luckily my kids annoying habit of opening a water bottle taking two sips then getting another one the next time they need a drink came in handy. I found enough partially filled water bottles in the back of the van to last for the time we were there. Which wasn’t very long but it was HOT!! It was in the 90’s with a 100+ heat index.
Friday night we went on a short hike to the lake, ate dinner, played games, played soccer, walked around the horse pens, played with the local dogs and cats, roasted smores and had a fun time together.
Allison doesn’t like eating smores but she is a very good marshmallow roaster so she kept the smores coming for me and then anyone else that would take them.
About 11 o’clock the leader called it for the night and sent everyone to their tents. Then one leader left and went home to return in the morning and the other one went to her car and closed herself in a quiet private sleeping area. The other three moms and myself were left with 8 hyped up on sugar girl scouts. Our tents were so close we might as well have all been in the same one. It was a long night and I was quickly reminded how much I don’t like camping in the summer in Kansas, but also in general. I am becoming less and less a fan everytime I do it. Everyone finally fell asleep sometime after midnight and we were able to sweat and try and get comfortable in silence until 5 am when some dog started barking and woke everyone up. At which point I discovered that at some point between 1-5 am I actually had slept deep enough to let a spider that was hiding somewhere in our tent-my sleeping bag specifically- had bitten me 7-8 times and I had huge welts starting all over my legs and torso. Reason number eleventy billion I don’t like sleeping in a tent. Since everyone was up we packed everything up and ate breakfast and got ready for the horse ride…and waited almost two hours to go. Did I mention the girls woke up at 5 am. We were supposed to ride at 10, but because of the heat and our early rising, they started getting the horses ready sooner and we started at 8:30 am.
It was quite a group of us, between the girls, moms, and guides there was about twenty of us. Alli road a horse named Luna which one of the guides told me was sometimes short for Lunatic because she was a little onery and sassy. The guide told Alli that she would have to be stern with her and give her a little kick if she didn’t want to listen or she would do whatever she wanted (eat, go a different direction, just stop). Alli thought that was great. She loves a free spirit take charge kind of attitude. Her horse did stop and hold the line up a few times too. One time it started running to catch up, the guide was worried Alli was scared until she heard her squeels of delight. I rode on Nelly. She was a little wobbly sometimes, I kept thinking we were going to fall on our faces, but she was a good horse and nice and calm. It was an enjoyable ride.
Once we got back from the ride, the girls helped put the saddles away, brushed and groomed the horses, lead them back to their pens and mucked out the stalls to earn their equestrian badge. I went on a short walk around the barn to loosen up my knees from the ride because I am getting old and could barely walk when we got back. When I returned from my walk the girls were just finishing cleaning the stalls. Allison was talking to the lady in charge about coming to clean up the stalls for her whenever she wants for just $5… the lady said, “sure you can pay me $5 to come clean them out.” Obviously it wasn’t her first offer from a girl scout. Ha!
We headed home shortly after that. The boys were at the Royals game for Matthew’s Christmas present, so the girls helped me air out and clean up all the camping stuff and we went to the pool. We had it all to ourselves so I laid in the zero entry part and dozed a little while they played. It was wonderfully relaxing. I’m a beach girl not a camper.
By that night I had about a dozen chigger bites pop up all over me to go along with my spider bites. Apparently the bug spray expired between the time I sprayed Alli and then myself. Luckily she didn’t get any bites. I was an itching miserable mess for the next few days.
I asked Alli if she had a fun time and wanted to do it again. She said she loved the horses part but didn’t really like camping. I am cool with that. We can do other fun activities together that don’t involve bugs, dirt, sweat, and port-a-potties all night long. Emilee who is usually inseparable from me is not an outdoorsy person either. She does not even like picking strawberries or blueberries with us because its to ‘melty and bugsy’ (hot, humid, and to muchnature). When I gave her a kiss goodbye before the campout she asked where I was going. When I told her she said, “See you tomorrow!” without a second thought. I guess we will all be softies together and save camping for ‘only when necessary’. At least in Kansas.
Allison had to be convinced to go to Girls Scout Camp at first. She was a little perterbed that it wasn’t actually camping. It would be more accurately described as a day camp I guess. She wanted to spend the night. She said she would still go once she found out that her bestie Carlee was going to be there though. She ended up being very happy that she went.
We made all her ‘swaps’ to trade. I have a picture of some of those in an earlier post. She ended up with over 50 when she was all done making them. She put about half on her hat for the first day, it was so heavy it kept falling off of her head. Ironically she traded some the first day then decided that she liked hers the best so she stopped trading so she could keep her own.
She was up and ready to go everyday without any proding. She laid everything out the night before then wrote a list to check off in the morning to make sure she had everything, even though she had already checked everything off on the list she made to pack everything the night before. Hehehe! That is a little bit of myself coming out in her-makes a momma proud. We share the love of making lists. Hahaha! Actually, I have seen Ryan do that too when he has a fun golf trip the next day or he is leaving on his annual Vegas Guys Trip.
She had a blast. The bus ride to and from the camp was about 40 minutes and that was one of the best parts. There were lots of crafts to do, they went fishing, hiking, zip lining, had a cook out, archery, and a little free time to make sure there was plenty of time to swap their swaps.
Camp was Tuesday thru Friday. When I was picking her up on Thursday I heard someone yell, “Bye Taylor, see you tomorrow.” To which Alli said, “Bye see you tomorrow.” I looked at her with a questioning look and she said, “Oh, I told everyone that my name is Taylor this week.” I don’t know where she comes up with her ideas sometimes.
Overall, ‘Taylor’ had a fun time and was glad she went. She is getting older and able to do more activities and be a little busier with her own stuff. It is helping her a lot to be happier and more satisfied. Sometimes she struggles with not getting to do everything that Matthew does, and has a hard time accepting that he is four years older than her. Someday that won’t be that big of a difference but right now it is pretty signifigant. She is very independent and motivated so she thinks that qualifies her to do anything an 11 year old can do. It is not just the age difference though. Matthew and her have very different personalities and their responsibility and realiability play a roll in it too which she doesn’t understand. I don’t expect her to grasp that either, it can just make for some frusterating repetative conversations for both of us.
She is still loving gymnastics, she decided to sign up to do Girl Scouts again next year, and is looking forward to resuming piano in the Fall as well. Top that off with being in 3rd grade and she should feel pretty busy with her own things going on.
A few weeks ago Ryan and Matthew had something going on and it was a gorgeous night so we went to a park to play. I was pushing the girls in the swings and realized that I knew the person standing next to us. Her name was Nikki and her younger sister Sarah was my kids first babysitter. She used to watch them when I worked in the summer and then through out the school year for dates and stuff. The kids LOVE her. She was their main babysitter for about 4 years until she moved to California. They still talk about her and remember all the amazing times they had with Sarah. She is graduated now and actually just got back from a mission about a month ago. Her parents are still in California but she came to visit her sister for a few days and happened to be on her way to meet Nikki at the park. My kids were over the moon excited when she showed up. They were running and playing tag with her within 5 minutes and so excited to see her.
When the girls told Matthew about it later that night he was pretty disappointed he didn’t get to see her. She ended up stopping by later that week for a few minutes to see Matthew too. I thought he might be ‘to cool’ but he was just as happy as the girls and had perma grin the whole time she was there. Emilee couldn’t get close enough to her and Allison was trying to tell and show her everything about her life in ten minutes. It was pretty cute. I love that they have those fun memories of her babysitting them. I think Matthew was 6 the last time she watched them. Emilee was only 1-2 so she doesn’t even have any actual memories of her but the older two have built her up so much she loves her by association. I am glad we ran into her. She was only here for a week then headed home for a bit before going to school, so it was good timing.
Well yesterday was Matthew and Allison’s last day of school, and today was Emilee’s so we are officially in summer mode!
Emilee and I went to the elementary school for the last hour or so to watch the 5th grade slide show with Matthew and eat treats with him while they signed t-shirts and year books. Then we went to Alli’s class and ate popsicles and danced and took silly pictures with her. Then the whole school lined up in the halls and all the 5th graders walked through the school for their ‘final walk’ while everyone cheered and gave them a high five. It was a fun time.
Emi had a fun time today for her last day and got her little preschool diploma and gave Ms. Cristi a big hug. She will see her a few times over the summer when I work, but once kindergarten starts next year we probably won’t see Ms. Cristi to often anymore. She is an awesome teacher. Allison and Emilee love her to death. They love her so much that Matthew holds a grudge against me for not having him go to her for preschool. (It was her first year and I already had him enrolled in another one when I found out she was going to do it). Apparently his preschool experience was hardly bearable.
Switching topics a little, a few years ago we started working with a therapist with Allison to help her deal with her emotions a little better. One of the things he wanted us to start implementing right away was a ticket system that basically for doing things we want her to do she earns tickets and then can use those tickets to do things she wants to do. It is supposed to help her learn cause/effect, choice/consequence, need/wants, etc. We started out all gung-ho and did good and then have been off and on after the first little while with it. I won’t bore you with all the details as to why but it has become a pain in my butt. Everytime we go see him I know he is going to ask me if we are doing it, and I always go in with the intentions of telling him where he can stick his stupid ticket system, and then I always leave telling him we will rally and try again. He is a good therapist…or at least good at getting you to agree with him to do something. So we go home try it again and start the cycle over again. Again, I won’t bore you with details as to why it falls apart and all the different things we have tried, but two years later we haven’t figured out how to make it maintainable…until now…I think…I hope.
I found an app the other day called Chore Monster. Basically it is the same thing her therapist has been wanting us to do. The app tells them their chores for the day and when they do it they get points and they can use the points for rewards. Same thing. Being electronic for some reason makes a huge difference for me. There is a parent app that goes with it called Mothershp. So I had to basically plug in the ‘master chore chart’ and the rewards and then the kids can get on any of our phones or ipads and find their chart. I can totally cater it to each kid and make it more specific for one and general for another. It is easy to change if something isn’t working (without certain kids even realizing it and throwing a fit), I don’t have to redo a whole chart or carry stupid tickets everywhere with me, or remember to get or give tickets because I didn’t have them on me. They don’t get lost, they can’t be torn up, scribbled on, or leave me mean notes. The parents are the only one with access to changing things. All the kids have to do it click ‘done’ or ‘claim’. I can even set it up for Matthew that he can just basically use it as a reference so he knows what his jobs are because he doesn’t need to be monitored as much, except for his electronic usage which this will do too. For the girls I get a notification when they complete a chore so I can approve it or not, which is awesome because I can check it right then to make sure it was done right or not. Which leads into another thing we are working on this summer.
Each summer we make a bucket list of fun activities we want to do. Each summer I also have to adjust and let go of my house being as clean as I like it all the time, which is something I like and want but I don’t want it to be more important than other things to me. I do feel like the kids should help contribute to keeping the house clean though since we all live in it and they should learn to care for their surroundings. So, last night Ryan and I told the kids that along with our regular bucket list we were going to have a summer theme too. We had a mini family meeting to tell them that the theme we picked for this summer is ‘Work hard and play hard’. We even made a poster to hang up to remind everyone of the theme everyday. Then we talked about using our time wisely and doing our jobs we are supposed to do, to the best of our ability and try our hardest the first time. We talked about how learning to work is good thing and helps them become responsible capable people. All things that Ryan and I have been wanting to improve and work on lately. Then we showed them the app and how it works.
Of course there was some skeptisism and baching but today was our first day and it went pretty good. They like that it is an app too so they get to use the phone or ipad to see their jobs and use an electronic. The app also gives them a ticket everytime they complete or cash in their points. Just a fun little side thing the app does is there is a little wheel they can spin with each ticket and win a ‘prize’. It is totally silly, the prizes are another spin if they get a smiley face, if they get a sad face it is a bag of hammers, or a dirty sock, or Matthew got a bag of farts last night. The wheel is just a little bonus. They don’t actually get anything from spinning but they think it is hilarious to see what is in the bag.
Today was our first day of implementing it. The kids got up and got their jobs done and then started using their points to play. It worked pretty good, they all did their jobs, they all have plenty of points, they all had fun doing things. It was a good day. Crossing my fingers that it keeps working.
We also started crossing a few things off our Summer Bucket List too. We went to lunch with dad. We got new books to ready at the library (first of many times this summer). We went swimming (also first of many times). AND we always have a night or two that we go fire fly hunting. A friend of ours told us about a really cool place she found that has tons of fire flies so the girls and I went to check it out tonight. It was amazing, there were thousands of them, we will have to take dad and Matthew with us another time (they were at a baseball thing). I took some pictures and videos but they don’t do it justice.
Ryan is a big James Taylor fan. He has been since high school. When we were dating I was ‘tested’ to see if I was cool enough to appreciate a little JT music. I knew a few of his songs and liked them but wouldn’t call myself an avid fan or anything. Later on when our kids were born Ryan and I both sang them several different lullaby’s. I stuck with mostly a variety of primary songs. Ryan’s favorites to sing them were the Spanish ‘Aye, Aye, Aye, Aye’ song (which is actually a Spanish drinking song but the way he sings it sounds like a sweet lullaby and none of us understand what he is saying) and ‘Sweet Baby James’ by James Taylor. He is still one of our family favorites to sing to on our spontaneous road trip karaoke break outs.
A couple years ago, James Taylor did a one night concert at the Star Light Theater… we totally missed it, and didn’t even know about it until about a week after it happened. Ryan was more than a little disappointed. Chances of another opportunity seem pretty slim. Well, a few weeks ago when the girls and I went to the Sprint Center for Disney on Ice, I was looking at their upcoming events and noticed there was a one night concert for James Taylor in May! Yeah!! We got tickets and are going next week. Ryan is pretty excited. James Taylor probably won’t be doing concerts to much longer so he is glad we got another chance to see him. He is even missing Matthew’s baseball game to go, which is a very rare occurrence (Matthew isn’t missing it 🙂 ).
Sticking with the James Taylor theme I am going to post a video I have had on my phone for years. A little blast from the past. It is pretty stinking cute. We had to drop one of our cars off to get something fixed so the kids and I took Ryan to work. We were about halfway home and ‘Sweet Baby James’ came on and Matthew and Alli were singing it pretty good, so I pulled over in a parking lot and started it over to get a video of them. Matthew is about 7, Allison is 3, and Emilee who unfortunately is never shown in this video (I was focused on my singers and she wasn’t singing) is sitting next to Matthew is 1.u
After the concert…
We saw James Taylor last night. We had a great time, it was a good concert. I recorded him when he talked and then sang ‘Sweet Baby James’
Allison decided that she wanted to be in the 2nd grade talent show this year. Allison and her bestie Carlee and their friend Hailey put it all together by themselves at recess and signed up. I had seen Allison practice her part a little but I had not seen all of them do it until they performed it today. They did a great job. They wanted it to have gymnastics and cheerleading stuff in it, and have a good beat. They had a lot of fun doing it. I am proud of her for taking the initiative and planning and preparing something. She woke up at 6:30 this morning to do her hair and had me help her do her nails too.
Later that month she had her award ceremony for 2nd grade. I had to work but Ryan went and watched her get her ‘Amazing Author’ award. I think that is very fitting award for her. She is a creative thinker for sure. Ryan took a picture, I almost just think I should skip it but since I have it I will include it. I reviewed his picture taking responsibilities after he sent this and I found out it was the only one he took. :-/ Alli is just to the right or center with a white shirt and orange sleeves getting her award…kind of hard to see.
This has been a good week. I have tried to focus on ‘the little things’ more and enjoy the moments. There have been lots of good moments.
Allison has day camp coming up for Girl Scouts. They are supposed to make little trinkets called ‘swaps’ to pin to their hats and trade with each other all week. They suggested that each girl bring 15-20 of them to have ready to trade. Alli and I did some research together and found some cute ones she wanted to make and then we went to Hobby Lobby and got all the supplies for them. We have worked on them a little bit for the past few nights. She has at least 35 now. She is pretty excited. She is counting down the days until camp. The one on the left is a cotton candy swap, the middle one is a ‘squishum’, and the right side is a slime stress ball of course. It wouldn’t be right if slime weren’t involved somehow.
Emilee and I went to the Zoo together. She has wanted to go for a while but the weather or our schedule hasn’t cooperated. Usually we go with a group but it was just the two of us so she got to sit on any statue she saw, choose where we sat on the train, tram, and skyfari, and pick all the animals she wanted to see. Today we made cookies together too. I let her measure everything herself even though I had almost the same amount of flour on the floor as the cookies did when we were done.
With Matthew I have cornered him a few times and made him talk with his mom. He tries to act like it is an inconvenience but he loves it. Once he starts talking he just keeps going and going. He is good at including all the details he can recall. He had a double header tonight. He has been working hard on hitting lately and he has decided he wants to start working on pitching too. He had some great hits tonight but his play of the game was when he was playing 2nd and the hitter hit a line drive a little to Matthew’s left. Matthew ran at it then leaped and caught it in mid air and closed the inning. It was pretty awesome. He got a standing cheering ovation from me and the rest of the parents of course but he even had parents from the other team coming over and telling him what an amazing catch it was. He was pretty happy.
These are a few of Alli’s most recent art projects she has brought home from school. Allison is our little artist. She is very creative and when she does a craft for the first time it is usually at a level it took me several tries to get to. She is good at drawing, painting, chalks, making things from clay, or anything else. The other day she raided my craft drawer and is working on making a bird house out of popsicle sticks. She has a sweet little heart and can be very thoughtful. She often makes cards for everyone in her class at school and puts them in everyone’s cubbies at school.
I was talking with my mom today and was telling her that Alli started out good but took a quick turn and had a rough morning. Allison is so passionate, there is no middle ground for her feelings, whatever they are. She has always been like that. She has a very strong personality. She is very much like my sister Sherri. In fact it is almost eerie how similar they are. It is amazing how genetics can come through from different family members. My mom made the comment that she hopes Alli will realize how special she is. I couldn’t agree more. I worry for her that she is so harsh and defensive sometimes because she is unsure of herself. I pray everyday that I can help her develop a strong sense of self worth. She is very smart, she has a very quick wit and funny sense of humor. She can be the sweetest, most helpful little girl. She loves it when there is a little baby or toddler around so she can follow them around and help take care of them. She doesn’t have a shy bone in her, and is a natural leader. She loves trying new things. She likes knowing whats going on and being in on whatever people are talking about or doing. She tells me all the latest news from school for 2nd grade and 5th. She likes to walk home with a bunch of the girls in 5th grade with Matthew. I signed her up for a singing/acting/stunt show camp this summer. I think she will totally love it. Drama, drama, drama is what she loves. She likes to know everyone and their stories but she tends to have a few closer friends instead of a big group of friends. And when Allison decides you are her friend and she feels like she trusts you, you have her loyalty forever. She has a great memory. She is a strong determined beautiful little girl. I hope and pray she realizes and knows that. I am excited to see her grow into her potential.
I think this time of year with Spring finally coming and things blooming and changing and getting to be outside more and summer getting close and the school year starting to wrap up I start to feel naustalgic. We have a few months left before we officially finish up the toddler phase of our family and enter the everyone is in school all day phase of our family. It is a bitter sweet feeling. On the obvious side of the perks of having the kids at school and the time that opens up to get stuff done faster and get to things that have been put off for a long time that will be nice. It will be nice to be able to get stuff done so once they get home I can focus on just them and not have other distractions. On the other hand though I will really miss having some company during the day. For the last 12 years of my life I have had at least one of my kids with me for the majority if not all of the day. This is going to be a big change. Things just aren’t the same once they start school, everything speeds up.
I remember before Matthew started kindergarten I thought the parents that said they cried when they took their kids to school for the first time were kind of weird. I envisioned myself doing a cartwheel. Then I took Matthew to kindergarten and I wasn’t crying (ok, I cried when I got home) but it pulled at my heart strings a lot more than I expected. He had been my buddy. He is such a good kid too. He is so kind and pleasant to be around. His cute little giggle and adorable smile. He loved to play and run and do whatever I was doing. He is a thinker and is good at making people around him feel good. One of my favorite memories of Matthew is when he was about 18 months pushing his little bubble lawn mower next to his dad and wearing one of Ryan’s hats while Ryan mowed the lawn. I remember watching them and wishing I could push pause on time for a while. Contrast that to yesterday while Ryan and I were working in the yard and Matthew was riding MY bike in circles in the driveway while he talked with us. He is still an amazing kid but he is starting to get a little teenager in him and doesn’t want to hang out as much as he used to or has a lot of things going on with friends and baseball that keep him busy.
Allison was my saving grace when Matthew started kindergarten. She was still home with me to keep me company. With her little determined independent self accompanied by her cute little bouncing blond pony tails she has always been a force to be wreckened with. She has always been ready to go out and explore the world around her. I could put Matthew and Emilee on a blanket on the grass and they wouldn’t leave because they didn’t like the poky grass. Allison never paused for a second, she would immediatley take off to explore through whatever terrain surrounded her. Her being the middle child Emilee was on her way so she didn’t get as much one on one as everyone else. But we still had many fun times together at the park, or on walks, or story time at the library, playgroup, and anything else we did. She was very good to Emilee and liked to take care of her and help with what she needed. Allison was only going to be five by a couple weeks when she started kindergarten so she only did one year of preschool. She really is an independent person and wants to do everything her older brother does so she had no problem starting school and never looked back. I am more of a home body and she is the exact opposite so sometimes it is exhausting for me to keep her satified with getting out and doing things but I am glad she is that way. She is already great at making things happen instead of waiting for things to happen.
Matthew and Alli were only half day kindergarten, which I thought was perfect for them. Last year was the last year Kansas did half day kindergarten so when Emilee starts next Fall she will be gone all day. I think she will do fine with it. She will be almost six when she starts and has reached the stage where she wants more social interaction and activities going on during the day. I am the one that is going to struggle with it. Emilee is a joyful easy companion. She is fun to take pretty much wherever I go. She has done preschool a few days a week the past two years but it will be very different to have her gone all day. She is my little buddy. I will miss having her joyful little self skipping around the house. I have been feeling a little glum lately wanting to push a pause button on time again. When I got her preschool pictures back it got me thinking about it all again.
I love watching my kids and discovering the traits they were born with from day one and the things they learn and develop along the way. I know I am not done with that either, like I said it is just changing. When we left the baby phase for good, I was a little sad about that too. Our new phase has its perks too. It is pretty easy to hop in the car and go places now. Our Florida trip really was pretty nice, everyone can entertain themselves and can handle being in the car all day. The girls still need a little help but everyone can get themselves ready for things for the most part. I also like them being able to explain and talk things through more, and have a few more reasoning skills.
To sum up, I am happy and gratful I get to be a mom, and I get to be a mom that gets to stay home with her kids. The sleepless nights, blow-outs, being thrown up on, crying, tantrums, fits, sickness, messes, diaper changes, days without a shower, no adult interaction, reading the same book 50 times in a row, singing the ABC’s ‘one more time’, and all the other exhausting sometimes mind numbing activities that aren’t the easiest part of being a mom are completely worth every hug, smile, kiss, giggle, snuggle, laugh, joyful discovery, dried tear, fixed ouchie, silly, funny, happy, once in a lifetime moments that come along with it.
Here is some of my favorite moments from the past few years.
The last few weeks have been flying by! I’ll start with Easter and work backwards. This past weekend was Easter and also General Conference for church. It was also April Fool’s day much to Alli’s delight, and we got to have Grandma and Grandpa Jones come visit us for the weekend.
Friday night started with the girls and I going to Disney on Ice with Aliya, Cambrie and Lori McDonald. They had a special offer through the girl scouts and Lori’s daughters are in girl scouts too so we all went together. It was really good! Disney always does a good job. Everyone had a fun time and got to sing along to fun songs. Emilee was over the moon excited that Moana was part of it. Allison sang her little heart out for the Frozen songs. After the show they had a special behind the scenes for the girl scouts. We went down and sat right by the ice rink and they showed us different things that make the show work and told us fun stuff about the show, and we watched some skating of course. We were so close we got sprayed with the ice when they went by. We were all hungry afterwards so we went to Freddy’s for some hamburgers and ice cream. It was a really fun girls night.
Saturday we watched conference and played games with Grandma and Grandpa. I have been teaching Allison a few card games, so she wanted everyone to play Wacky Six together. All of us can play except Emilee but she just sat at the table with us and colored and got to tell us when to start the round. My parents and I also went to Spring Hill and looked around at some houses there. Hopefully they will be moving by one of their kids soon so I wanted to tempt them with some possibilities here if they end up in Kansas.
Sunday was a relaxed morning, the kids went through their baskets and found all the eggs. Aaron’s Easter basket has a little Easter lesson in it that we do every year. We usually do it for FHE the week before but we hadn’t done it yet so we did that too. We watched the rest of Conference Sunday. It was a really nice Conference, they changed several programs and ways that things are organized. They talked a lot about ministering to those around us and taking care of others. We set out snacks like we usually do with a word that is said often in conference by each snack. When the kids hear the word they can pick a snack out of the bowl. It helps them pay attention a little better and they look forward to having fun snacks. We like to have ham and cheesy potatoes for Easter so we did that for dinner. My parents didn’t have to leave until Monday so we finished up the evening with more games. It is always fun to have grandparents come to visit.
Allison has been counting the days down to April Fool’s day for almost a month. She was giddy about it. She doesn’t quite get what you are supposed to do though, so she used it as a day to be ridiculously silly more than pranks-which is fine with me. At one point she was wearing her clothes inside out, my bra on top of that, her hair in a pony under her chin so it looked hairy, and every body part she could reach labeled with a sticky note. I helped her do a few things like hide a few extra eggs with peas and carrots in them, and putting food coloring in the bottom of everyone’s cup so the milk changed colors. She has some pre-April Fool’s jokes throughout the month while she anticipated the actual day. All of us had our turn of going to get dressed one morning and finding instead of our own underwear, someone elses.
Emilee had a momentous occasion this past week. She lost her first tooth. It has been wiggly forever. She is going to be one of those kids that hangs onto her teeth until they fall out completely on their own. She could have wiggled it out days before it finally fell out. It was exciting for her though. Before we know it our youngest isn’t going to be so young anymore.
The weekend before Easter Grandma and Grandpa Terry came down for the weekend. They stayed at Ross and Lauren’s so we spent most of the weekend over at their house. Roger is getting ready to retire this summer so we talked with them about moving down here by us sooner rather than later. It was a pretty busy weekend with baseball, soccer, cleaning the church, a baptism, and other things so we didn’t get to see them as much as we would like but we are always glad when they come for a visit.
Earlier this month I was working on a Monday and left for work about 7am. When I work Ryan drops the kids off at school and then heads to work around 7:45. Earlier that weekend I had driven Ryan’s car for some reason. His car has a key you don’t have to put in the ignition. It just has to be on your person somewhere, and we only have one of them. I usually try to just not drive his car because I always forget to take the key out of my purse afterwards and there have been far to many times where I leave with his key and have to bring it back to him. It is very frustrating for all involved. So as you can probably guess, I forgot again and was 35 minutes away working in a dental office when Ryan called to see if I had his key. Grrrr. It gets better though. I found someone to pick Emilee up and take her to preschool and Ryan said he would walk the other two to school, and actually he had been planning on working from home so he was set. Now it gets worse. When it was time to walk to school it is not just sprinkling or drizzling rain. It is a solid steady down pour of rain. Allison was not swayed at and she grabbed her stuff and was out the door. Matthew was not so cooperative. Stubborn little stinker. If he gets hit with a 50 mph baseball he shakes it off like nothing happened, but if you tell him he has to get wet or cold against his will and he will have none of it. He refused to walk in the rain. Refused. Ryan asked, told, demanded, threatened loss of electronics (this usually works 99% of the time for Matthew), actually took away electronics, bribed , begged, and demanded again, Matthew would not go. So he started doing the list of chores that would take him all day long to do instead of going to school. About this time Emilee’s ride came to pick her up and Matthew asked her to drop him off at school on the way. Like I said- Stinker.
Baseball season has started…but no one told the weather. Our first few scrimmages, outdoor practices and game or two have been canceled because of cold, rain, and snow. We have a game tonight that was rescheduled from a week ago. Matthew has been checking the weather every five minutes hoping it will cooperate. So far so good. He will be excited to have the first game under his belt and really get into baseball season.
Since I’m talking about being sick I will give a little summary of sickness tolerance of our family. I don’t like my kids to be sick obviously but I do have a little extra nurturing mom side that comes out when they are sick. I love that I can take care of them and I know all of the little things to make them feel better. When Ryan reads the last few sentences he is going to…react…so I will start with the reason for that and get it cleared up.
Ryan and I didn’t really have to many big adjustments to each other when we got married but being sick and the expectations of the other person was one of them that we bumped through a few times. So here are our pre-marriage expectations.
Me 2002- Life needs to continue whether you are sick or not so suck it up and keep going. Colds don’t even count as being sick, they are just a nuisance. If you are sick you are a wimp. Take care of yourself if you are sick.
Ryan 2002- When you are sick, you get in bed and rest and get over it. You don’t go to work, or church or anything because no one wants to be around you anyways and get sick. Your wife takes care of you and sympathizes with your sickness.
With those expectations in mind…
Many, many, many years ago Ryan was sick. At the time I think I was working every Monday at an office. We had someone that watched Matthew for us. I came down the stairs to go to work and Ryan was on the couch and said he didn’t feel good so he was going to stay home from work. Unbeknownst to me, not only was he sick but he had been throwing up or coughing all night or something so he was extremely tired on top of his illness. I asked him if he was going to keep Matthew home with him or if he still wanted me to take him to the sitter. He said, “No, I’m sick” I said, “Ok” and for the next ten plus years I have been labeled as the ‘cold, unsympathetic, heartless wife’ that was ‘disgusted that her poor sick husband wouldn’t watch their son when he was sick’ basically almost dying. That is Ryan’s version. My version is,the first time I had to work when Ryan had a man cold I asked if he was still taking Matthew or not so I could let our sitter know. He said he was still taking him and I went to work.
Ryan, right about now I sense your desire to come tell me your version of the story AGAIN. Keep reading.
Fast forward a few years of practice and you now have our adjusted expectations. These are of course ideal situations and sometimes adjustments have to be made but this is the general idea.
Ryan 2018- When Ryan is sick he wants to be left alone to sleep or play a video game, but he likes to be checked in on occasionally so see if he needs company or a refill or medicine. The longer he is sick the more he likes to be checked on because he gets lonely. He likes to be in his room with the door closed so it is quiet and the blinds closed so it is dark. He likes ice water with a little ice, and lemon lime Gatorade. If he has an appetite he prefers some kind of chicken soup. He will not be doing any other tasks until he is feeling better. After years of proving my nursing abilities I have almost redeemed myself from my original blunder.
Me 2018- When I am sick, I get to be sick. Many times Ryan has stayed home from work to take care of the kids so I can rest. I get to have the door closed and be in my bed and sleep. He will check on me and see if I need anything. It is almost like a little vacation-except I feel like crap. I will still probably go to work if I am scheduled but I do realize that people don’t want to be exposed to whatever I have when I am sick so I am getting better at staying home. Colds still don’t count as being sick (for adults), however, they are a reasonable excuse to go to bed early if you’re a wimp. 🙂
Where our kids are concerned we also made a lifetime arrangement due to each others stronger than usual aversion to vomit or poop. When possible and reasonable Ryan is in charge of clean up and assisting in areas of vomiting. I have the same agreement when poop is involved. I think I got a pretty good deal because vomit has the potential to appear for years to come, hopefully poop doesn’t.
Ok, I veered a little off topic. I may sound like I am joking describing some of our sick traits, and it can be overwhelming sometimes, especially when there are multiple people sick but I love my family and I love nursing them back to health when they are sick. As long as they don’t throw up on me.
Emilee- She stays true to her typical snuggly, mommy loving self but kicks it up a notch. When Emilee is sick she feels best when I am physically touching her and devoting all my attention to watching her be sick. Sitting by her reading a book, or watching a show, or doing anything else is not good enough. She wants me to make her a sick bed on the couch with her fridge cold water in a sippy cup so I can help her drink it without her having to lift her head. Then lay next to her and look at her and say that I am sorry she is sick while stroking her hair. She will take medicine if it is bubble gum flavored.
Matthew- He is changing to more of the sit in front of the tv/play video games until he is better but he has some things he likes too. Matthew likes to be waited on hand and foot when he is sick. He likes to be checked on regularly and have the option of having a sick bed on the couch or staying in his room. He wants a sprite and water to drink. He also loves orange jello that is stirred just before it is all the way set so it is like a soup not a solid jello. He is the best at taking medicines (even if they are disgusting) and will ask for medicines for specific things-like a throat spray or cough or headache. He used to have night terrors at random times when he was little. Now they are just when he is sick, and his asthma always gets worse towards the end of his sickness, which means he usually takes the longest to get better.
Allison- Alli is our lock it down don’t mess with me sick person. She is by far sick the least amount of anyone. She has only had to take antibiotics twice in her life. The first time was Penicillin and we discovered she was allergic to it. She has never even had an ear infection. She is usually sick the shortest amount of time too. When she is sick she wants a sick bed on the couch with her blanket. She wants a throw up bowl and ice water within arms reach. Then she pretty much lays there and sleeps until she is better. She will get up and go to the bathroom when she needs and she likes to be carried up to her bed at night and then carried back down in the morning but otherwise she wants to be left alone. She will not take any medicine. She is just now starting to occasionally take Tylenol but most of the time she will have nothing to do with it-not even a cough drop.
Tonight was the Girl Scouts Daddy-daughter dance. Alli was pretty excited. You can make it as fancy as you want so she wanted Ryan to wear his suit and she got a new fancy dress. She loves it when she braids her hair and then takes it out and it is kinky so we braided it last night and she wore it all day until it was time to get ready for the dance. It was really fun helping her get ready and finding her dress. Especially since I know she is on a date with a pretty awesome daddy, instead of some dumb boyfriend. She will know the girls from her school that are there including her bestie Carlee and her friends Aliya and Cambrie she has known since birth. They are having it in a hotel ballroom so it is pretty official. I told Ryan to get lots of pictures of her dancing and having a good time. She looked very pretty tonight. He asked her if she wanted to go to dinner first. She of course was all for it and said Pizza Street was her choice (bottom of the barrel pizza buffet). Ryan said for a fancy date he had to take her to a little fancier place and convinced her to do Pie Five instead (made to order, fresh ingredients pizza place). Then it was off to dance the night away and when dad is all danced out he plans to end the evening with an extra big ice cream dessert.
I am really glad she wanted to do girl scouts. They have had a lot of fun activities together that help fill her social needs. Last weekend and this weekend she is helping with a cookie booth. Who knew standing in front of a grocery store selling girl scout cookies for 1-2 hours is a fun time!?
This is a bit of a tangent but I really love that we have been here in the same area since Matthew was two. It is fun to be somewhere so long that you start to have connections and people you see as you are just out walking around. Whether it is running into someone from the gym at the grocery store or Matthew’s school teacher buying cookies from Alli’s cookie booth, or knowing someone that used to be in your ward at church when you take your kids to their gymnastic class. I just like that I feel connected and so familiar with where I live, roots I guess is a good way to sum it up. Moving around a lot growing up I never really felt that. I like that my kids point out places as we drive by that they remember going to so and so’s birthday party years ago, or going to play at the park and seeing a friend you used to go to dance class with. Matthew runs into a lot of his friends from his old school when he is playing sports too. Its fun.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.