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.
There was a youth fireside in Independence tonight with John Bytheway as the speaker. Matthew is a few months shy of being 12 but we had him go anyways. He said it was really good and he was glad he went. As I was driving home after I dropped him off I was thinking about the fact that I just dropped my oldest child off at a YM activity. Which got me thinking about other moments in his life. Time really does fly by. He is such an amazing kid. I am so glad that I get to be his mom. He has a good head on his shoulders and a kind heart in his chest.
I remember the day we brought him home from the hospital. I kept thinking, “I can’t believe they are just letting me take him home, I’m a mom now.” It felt so weird to be driving with a baby in the back seat. Ryan has never driven so slow and I probably looked back and checked him a million times. He was my little buddy from day one. I loved singing him to sleep, snuggling him, and just looking at him. He never really cared for a pacifier but he has a blue blanket that became ‘the blanket’ the second he touched it. He still has it today and is showing no signs of being done with it. He also loved his nightly bottle before getting ready for bed. It was a total relaxing enjoyable experience for him.
He was a happy slightly pudgy little toddler. He has had a kind little tender heart from day one. He is shy but makes friends easily and is friends with everybody. He is good at including others and making them feel welcome and is kind to everyone. I remember taking him to nursery. This wasn’t to hard for me at the time because I was the Primary President so I was in there a lot and got to see him, it wasn’t to much of a ‘my baby boy is growing up way to fast moment’. Sunbeams was much harder. I remember my little boy walking right in to class wearing his little man suit and hoping up on his chair ready to go. I remember his first primary program. He stood tall and sang every word of the songs loudly, but when he went up to say his part he took one look at the audience and said, “Nope!” and turned right around and went back to his seat.
I remember his first little t-ball lessons when he was four years old where he chased the ball wherever it went and then a few years later crushing a home run in coach pitch. Then doing lots of other sports to pass the time until he can get back into baseball to joining the academy so he can be involved in baseball almost year round. I remember his first day of preschool. He was never a huge fan. He would have rather stayed home and been with his sister. He loved her
from day one. If he couldn’t be by her, he left his dinosaurs around her to watch her until he returned. His shyness was a big struggle for him in preschool. We practiced how to introduce yourself and make friends a lot.
I remember the first day of kindergarten, and each grade after. I thought I would be the mom doing cartwheels to send the kids to school. Instead I was the mom having a hard time leaving the class room and peaking back in several times to make sure he was ok before going home to sit around and wonder what I was going to do without him. Matthew has always been easy company and fun to have around. There is more than one mom of his friends that have told me they like having Matthew over and he is a really good friend to their son and I
can send him over anytime. Last year when we took the kids to school on the first day, I remember a little twinge in my chest realizing that it would be the last time I got to walk him to class on the first day. Next year is middle school and you get to just get dropped off. I remember another twinge in my heart when I told him that and he said I could still walk him to class if I wanted but no kiss goodbye, a hug would probably be fine though.
I remember his baptism. There was standing room only in the font room because so many friends and family came to support and see him get baptized. I remember feeling so blessed to have such a sweet, caring, loving, special boy. The gospel rests naturally with him. You can feel that he understood and knew it well before he came to earth. I remember the first time my shy little boy mustered up the courage to go up and bear his testimony. I was so proud of him and wish he would do it every month.
I remember thousands of small special little memories that I hope I will never forget. I love watching Matthew grow and develop into an even more amazing person. He is going to accomplish some great things. I wish it would just slow down. I love how he almost always has a little slight grin on his face and he is quick to turn it into a full grin when he sees someone. I love that he still snuggles me while he reads a book. I love that he randomly comes up to me and wants a hug. Sometimes it drives me crazy but I still love when he shows his affection with poking, and nudging, and teasing. I love when he laughs and plays with his sisters, and gives them a piggy back ride, or teaches them how to throw a ball, or plays tag, or hide and seek with them. I love his sense of humor and how he cracks himself up. I love that he writes in his journal then leaves it on my pillow for me to read. I love when he tells me about his day and it takes almost as
long as the day took because he includes every single detail. I love how he decides he wants to learn something and figures it out and works at it. I love that he tries to set a good example and reflects on how to improve. I love his company, I love him. I am a blessed momma. He is growing up so fast. Today I drop him off at a fireside, before I know it he will be driving, dating, graduating, and going on a mission. I am glad I get a front row seat at watching him grow.
This post is keeping it real. I think I have seen it all sometimes and then I wake up in the morning and find this. BLAHHH!!!
What the heck!
So I thought someone (easy to figure Matthew since the seat was left up) had just not flushed the toilet…which is usually my girls issues not Matthew’s. But as I got closer I saw that indeed he had not flushed the toilet but was very relieved that he hadn’t because sitting at the bottom of the toilet was his T4K. What is a T4K? A T4K is a special ortho appliance that Matthew wears in his mouth every night to help correct his bite. Why was this (expensive) mouth appliance in the toilet? I called Matthew to the scene of the event to find out. He came and looked and thought I had put it in there. WHAT?!? After explaining to him that under no circumstances would I find it necessary, appropriate, funny, or any other possible reason be ok to put his T4K in the toilet full of pee. He seemed just as confused as I was as to why it was there. We fished it out with some very long BBQ tongs and while we were sterilizing the tongs, the T4K, our hands and the sink, Matthew had a partial recollection of a fuzzy memory of using the restroom early that morning and having something in his mouth that was bugging him so he spit it out. This makes a lot of sense because Matthew has had a handful of incidents over the years where he does something weird while sleep walking. So the best we can figure is that he wasn’t fully awake and spit it out while he was using the restroom. Still gross. Thank goodness he didn’t flush it!! We would have never have even guessed where it disappeared to.
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.
Harvesters food assembly.
Shaving cream fight.
Shaving cream fight.
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.
You might have picked up on it by now that Matthew and Ryan share the love of baseball. They spend as much time as possible playing, watching, practicing and enjoying it together. They have had some pretty awesome experiences together too-all their own baseball stuff they do together playing and coaching and practicing and then the Royals Wild Card game, Royals Spring Training, and family Royals games we go to. Matthew’s Christmas present last Christmas was Crown Seat Tickets to a Royals game, which are the 4 rows directly behind home plate. Front and center, best seats in the house to watch the game. So close you can keep the Ump honest. The tickets for the game he got were for a game this month so Matthew and Ryan went last Saturday. Watching the game, seeing the players up close, sometimes getting an autograph (Matthew almost got Salvador Perez’s autograph but wasn’t quite bold enough) is pretty fun. They also have a private all you can eat buffet available to them throughout the game. This isn’t hot dogs and nachos either. They have that if you want but it is real restaurant food, like all kinds of meats, appetizers, and treats. Matthew stuffed himself on shrimp, shirley temples, ice cream bars, his own personal ice cream sundae, which according to him, “had so many toppings on it I forgot there was ice cream on the bottom!” The seats are in the line of the TV camera’s too so everytime they showed the batter you could see Matthew and Ryan. We recorded the game at home so they could see themselves on TV afterwards. We texted them and told them we could see them and to have Matthew wave at us. Luckily the camera was on the batter when he waved so we saw him. The girls thought it was pretty awesome that someone had just waved at them on TV. They had a pretty fun time. Matthew said it was worth the wait, even though the Royals are not very good right now (almost the worst team in MLB) and didn’t win. Still lots of great memories.
He got a bonus game too. Not crown seats again, but the Monday night after the game Ryan took a client from work to the Royals game and her grandson happens to be a friend of Matthew’s from his previous school so he took Matthew and her grandson too. They lost again but Matthew had fun seeing his buddy.
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.
This is the slide show that was put together for the 5th graders. Matthew started going to this school in 3rd grade so he isn’t in it until then, but there are a lot of his friends in it.
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.
Shirt signing.
5th grade teacher Mrs. Janovick
5th grade Final Walk
Ms. Cristi, Emilee, Ragin and Reese. Emilee’s besties.
Silly pictures with Carlee, Alli’s bestie. I am pretty sure the other girl in the picture is Alli’s nemesis for some reason…maybe because she is gutsy enough to photo bomb a picture. LOL
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.
On the hunt for a fire fly.
Interesting how some bugs are terrifying and others are awesome.
This past weekend was the Hawaiian Hitfest Baseball Tournament. It is the biggest baseball tournament in the US, at least according to Twitter that is what they say. They have over 700 teams competing in the tournament. It was a pretty rainy weekend so the original game schedule was moved around ten times working around the rain, it finally got sunny enough to get the final rounds in though.
First game we won 12-2. Second game was probably our worst game ever. Ever. We lost 9-1. We were run ruled and only one of our ten batters batted more than once. It was rough. Our next game was canceled for rain, and we thought we were out of the tournament. We squeaked in the final games, we were lucky to get the very last spot. After that it was single elimination and we played until we lost the second to the last game and took 3rd place in our division. They had to play hard and work their way back up to the top after the big loss. The first game back in the finals the boys were on fire! Everyone was hitting awesome and our defense was unstoppable. Derrick on our team is a really powerful hitter, he has been really close to a home run for a while, he finally got not one but two homeruns back to back. It was pretty exciting good baseball!
The last few picture are Alli and Emilee playing around. They spend their time at the playground, climbing trees, riding scooters, playing in the dirt, eating junk food, and any other games they can think of with all their baseball buddies. All the siblings have fun playing together.
Celebrating with the trophy!
Jake just made it home and Matthew is rounding third to come in.
Can’t hit them all…
He had some good hits.
On his way in to score.
I didn’t get a shot of the full team with the trophy this time.
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’
