Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Can it seriously be the end of January already?

I'm not very sure where January went but it has been a full and busy one. Now that I think about it that's probably where it went. I thought for sure we were going to get a little break from the crazy, but it started again in a new way.

I finally got the kids signed up in after school and during school activities. Sydney and Noah are doing a science club during lunch once a week. They keep bringing home some fun experiments. I have even let them show them to me. Yay for me letting them mess up my kitchen. Which is sort of ironic, because it's mostly messy because of me.

Jacob, Sydney and Abigail are all taking gymnastics. Noah and Jacob are both taking martial arts. They are loving it. I'm loving it too, because a few of the rules require them to be nice and obey their parents without complaint. They have a chart they have to fill out everyday and if they get too many x's they don't get to try for their yellow belt.

So our week now looks something like this. Monday - Martial arts for the boys. Tuesday - Scouts for the boys. Wednesday - Martial arts for the boys and gymnastics for Abby. Thursday - Gymnastics for Sydney and Jacob. The only free day is Friday.

I will be starting next month to volunteer in Sydney's class while Abby is at school. I'm pretty excited for it.

Anyway that is next month. This month we had 3 days off from school. After a long weekend with a monday off it decided to snow. And snow. And snow. For the next 4 days it snowed. It actually started snowing on the saturday before but those don't count because they were already days off from school. The kids had a blast and got the rest of the week off. Of course Dave had gone to Utah and wanted to ski while he was there. Yep no snow - and we got 8 inches of it. Poor guy. He got to go when he came home. But kind of funny all the same.

Since I started this post a almost another month has gone by. What? Yep it's been extra crazy. Or maybe that's just me. Since I started this post Valentines day has happened. We had the annual kickoff meeting for Dave's work. The Super Bowl happened. I got another church calling and by that I mean I now have 2.

We are now at the beach for the week. The kids have a mid-winter break. We never had those. Of course the kids go to school until June 18th. Oh wait that changed too. The 4 days we had off for snow they added to the end of the year. The kids now get out on June 22nd. Yep you read that right. This means that Jacob will actually get to celebrate his birthday at school. His is the 20th. It will hopefully be a first and last.

I think this has updated what has been going on. We are trying to enjoy this extra week off. The kids are having fun. I keep thinking that if they just cancelled this week we could still end school on time. :)


Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Another year gone by!

Ok since I missed so many crazy things this year in blogging, I'm doing my annual catch up summary. I'm wishing I had the camera picture thing figured out, but again still challenged there.
This year was crazy! I mean it. It feels like I fit a whole year into the last 3 months. It's possible I did. But I'm pretty sure the beginning of the year was pretty normal. So here we go!!

January: This month was pretty mellow. Sydney had her dance class, Noah had scouts and Dave proceeded to play basketball. The boys had ski lessons up at Bogus Basin every Saturday which Dave took them to and used the couple hours to ski by himself. I think he really enjoyed that time. My kids had lots of playmates and I subbed in a few primary classes. That was it. Nice and normal.

February: This month started to get a little more crazy. Not a lot crazy, but we did have the State Kickoff Meeting for Dave's work. I help with the centerpieces. They turned out pretty. Noah started an after school math course to help him with multiplication. He really enjoyed it. I finally got my piano tuned so I could have the kids start piano lessons. I don't think they started till June. Yep I'm that good. My Mom and Dad came to visit for a week or so. Always nice to have them. Dave's sister Joy and her family came to visit too for a ski weekend. I stayed at home with the little ones since I'm not a skier. My friend Catherine also had business in Boise so I got a visit from her too. She remembered my love of the Beatles and brought me some Beatles mugs. I use them for my hot apple cider in the morning. I also had the "pleasure" of having a colonoscopy. That was an experience and I don't remember a bit of it, except the guy in the waiting room who was wearing a cape. Weird. Dave has a picture, it's not the meds talking. I got to sub again in primary. I also got an awesome Valentines present from my hubby. A cleaning service! Yep it was awesome. Made mopping my floors lots easier!

March: Dave and I took a much needed weekend trip to McCall Idaho. It was fun and relaxing. The house we stayed in had a hot tub so it was cool to be all warm while it was snowing around us. Beautiful. Sydney still was dancing and Noah was still scouting. I too started scouting. They called me to be Noah's scout leader. Wow. I knew nothing about scouts. I do now. I also subbed yet again in primary except this time as Chorister. Never ever have I done that before. It turned out ok I think. The last week of March we headed to Oregon for Spring Break and our niece Ava's baptism. We were so happy we could be there for that. It was a great weekend, and we got to see all the cousins. Then we headed to the beach for the rest of the time.

April: Dave had the chance to go back to South Carolina for business and visited some of the old mission areas. He also got to see some of the members he worked with. He had a great trip. I was home getting ready for our trip. Mom and Dad came in the same day Dave got back from SC and the next morning early Dave and I headed to Cabo. We had a great time. Nothing better than 85 degree weather to help you relax. The kids had fun with grandma and grandpa. Then we continued our normal things. Scouts, Dance, playdates and subbing in primary. Noah had the pinewood derby. His car was a shark. It turned out pretty awesome and I did all the food. It was pretty tasty too. Popcorn, rice crispy treats, and chocolate chip cookies. Juice boxes for the kids. Adults got water. The boys had walking club after school, which consisted of them walking for an hour. They seemed to like it. The best day was the last Saturday when our baby turned 3. She is such a doll and Abigail had a great birthday.

May: May started out with a trip to the dentist to have Abigail's funky tooth checked out. It turns out she has an extra tooth that fused to the one next to it. We have to watch it for when they fall out. Fortunately only one permanent tooth underneath. I went to a mother's tea for Jacob's class. He wrote a cute little story about why he loves me. I'm so sappy it brought little tears to my eyes. The kids kept doing what they do, scouts, dance, school. Sydney had her school spring singing program and Jacob had a field trip to the zoo. We had a BBQ at our house for some work people from Aflac headquarters. I got to sub in primary again. It's becoming a pattern. The kids kept having playmates and Mom and Dad came to visit again. Of course they keep coming to take care of the kids, because we keep traveling. This month Dave and I went to Destin, Florida. Beautiful beaches. The sand was like powdered sugar. I would have liked a couple more days, 2 days were spent traveling and I'm not a good traveler. We also missed Sydney's dance recital. She is such a cutie, but i'm happy mom and dad got to see her.

June: Dave started out the month heading to Vegas for his American College Graduation. I couldn't go because it was the end of school. What? Yep school is out for summer. So that means I finally got off my butt and started the kids in piano lessons. Yeah me. Jacob had a birthday party at Jumptime. It's one of those trampoline places. I have to say I'm all about them doing all the work. It was awesome. I just had to show up. Jacob turned eight this year. That means baptism. His birthday is the 20th so he had to wait until July. We started going to the water park because the weather finally decided to become summer or at least late spring. We continued to have play dates. Because dance was over and school!

July: The first weekend in July we had Jacob's baptism. The whole family turned out. All of the brother's and sisters and cousins and grandparents. It was a great weekend. Jacob chose me to give a talk on the Holy Ghost for the stake baptism and it was wonderful and humbling. Such a great time for all those kids. Since Jake was baptized on the 2nd everyone stuck around for the 4th. We went to Eagle Island state park and the kids played in the lake and at the park and we grilled and played games. It was a hot one. Then we went back home and lit fireworks. The Quists brought the good ones from Washington. Then we water parked it some more. The end of the week Noah, Jacob and I had cub scout camp. I realized I have little patience for people not listening to me. But by the end of the camp we were definitely the best behaved group there. We have good boys. I have a love, hate relationship with scouts. I'm grateful for the opportunity though. Sydney went to dance camp. She loved it. so cute. I continued to sub in primary. The kids started swim lessons at the water park. They had an opening in the mom and tot class so Abby and I took swim lessons too. Our sweet babysitter Cierra came to visit us from Oregon.

August: And this is where the crazy begins. The kids had one more week of swim lessons. Then we had the State picnic for Aflac at the water park. We spent a lot of time there this summer. It was a good thing too, because things were about to change. The day after the picnic the kids, Cierra and I left to go back to Oregon. We picked up Cierra's brother Hunter in LaGrande and continued on our way. The boys were supposed to start football that week but we were in Oregon. Dave went to Las Vegas again for a meeting and in that week we found out we were moving to Washington. What? Yep a move was in the works. Dave and I went up to Seattle twice that week. Once to find somewhere to live and the other to go to a dinner with some contest qualifiers. In between that we spent the week at the beach. It was also my 20 year high school reunion. It was fun to go and see everyone. It was more like an elementary school reunion for me because all my elementary friends were there. Now that we are out of high school we could all talk to each other again. :) I'm glad I went. It was worth it. I came back to Idaho and the kids started school. The boys had football. I had to cancel dance for the girls. sad. We went to the water park one last time.

September: Football, Scouts, school, moving....it was nuts. Mom and Dad came to help, we had our end of summer bbq. Which was really us throwing ourselves a going away party. I continued to sub in primary. Then we had a combination birthday for my Dad, Sydney and Noah. Next thing I know it's the primary program. 2 days later the movers arrive. They pack up the house and on Noah's actually birthday we go to Paul and Jenny's to spend the night before we leave the next morning for Washington. The kids started school here in Washington the next Tuesday. All 4 of them. We had to get a shot for Jacob so we found a doctor quick. Then our renters moved into our Idaho house.

October: Dave left for South Dakota for meetings. He came home for a day of meetings and then left again for South Carolina for more meetings. My mom and dad came to stay with the kids because.... you guessed it we had a trip. Dave and I headed to Hawaii. It was a nice time. It was also a bit of a much needed break. Dave's brother Mark also moved up to Washington, so we took advantage of him a few times to watch the kids so we could go out. We were home for a week and then headed to Disneyland. It was a very nice trip and we had lots of fun. Mark watched Foster the dog for us for a few days and then Foster spent his first time ever in a kennel. It was like a resort for dogs. He didn't seem to suffer at all. We made it home just in time for Halloween night. We trick or treated 2 streets and then October was over.

November: We started out the month normal. School and scouts. We even fed the missionaries. My old roommate Rebecca came to town so I got to go to dinner and visit with her. It was so nice to catch up. The kids and I decided to take the long weekend off from school and head to the beach. That is one of the things we are really excited about. Spending time at the beach house. We had parent teacher conferences and the kids seem to be adjusting fairly well. I was asked to host a Relief Society Thanksgiving luncheon. So I did. We had a great turn out and I was able to meet some really nice people. Dave and I had a work dinner that week also. So we asked one of the kids in our Sunday school class to babysit. I think the kids wore her out. Then it was Thanksgiving. We went to Dave's cousins for Thanksgiving. It was really nice of them to have us since they really don't know us at all. The day after Thanksgiving Dave flew out to go to his mom's wedding in Utah. He was back the next night.

December: We started out this month going yet again on a little trip. This time we went to Leavenworth, Washington. It is a cute little Bavarian town and they do a Christmas Lighting every year. They light up the whole town. It was really pretty. Cold, but a fun time. Then we came home and attended a wedding for a friend. It was beautiful and a nice way to spend a Sunday evening. We celebrated Dave's birthday. We made him a popcorn cake. It was yummy. Then he headed off to Dallas for more meetings and we tried to put Christmas up. We went to our ward Christmas party and Jacob played Joseph and Sydney played a wise man in the nativity. We continued to do our usual school. I started Yoga. It has been nice. Then we headed to Utah. Yep another trip. Dave and I had a ski trip to Park City, and we dropped the kids off with Joy and Channing for the weekend. 8 kids 10 and under. They are awesome. I actually did go skiing. I did one run. I think it took me 1 1/2 hours to complete but I did it. My knee was killing me at the end so I called it quits. Yep I'm a quitter. We had fun playing with our cousins in Utah. Noah got a touch of the flu so that wasn't too fun, but all in all a nice trip. We also visited some friends while we were there too. Always nice to see the Streetmans. Mom and Dad came up for Christmas and watched the kids while we went to a Christmas Party. Everyone got what they wanted for Christmas and then Dave's mom and new stepdad came for dinner as well as the missionaries. Dave's mom has also moved to Washington so half of us are up here and the rest will all be in Utah. Definitely had a full house. Mom and Dad hung around for another week and helped us out with our after Christmas, Christmas party, for Dave's work. It was a fun time I think. We went down to spend New year's eve in Yelm with Dave's mom and brother Mark's family. They have a pool, but it wasn't heated yet. The kids decided to go in anyway. 50* is too cold. Noah got a bit of a chill. It took him 2 days to recover. :) We made it home and hour before the new year but all the kids were asleep. That's ok Church started at 9 the next morning.

We had a wild and crazy but fun year. I look forward to our new adventures this year. I think my first will be taking down the decorations. I've already begun procrastinating. No worries though. We all sent some personal and family goals for this year. Should be a great one. Lets go 2012.