Thanksgiving 2009

Two years ago we made our first trip to Albuquerque to meet up with Rick & Sarah and kids. It was so much fun, that we decided to make it an every-other-year tradition. This year we went again and it was as much fun as the first time.

We both arrived late on Tuesday evening and awoke on Wednesday to head to the Zoo. The kids always love this, but I have to say this was one of the best zoo experiences I have ever had. The polar bear exhibit was great and we happened to catch feeding time. One polar bear, in particular, would leap off the top ledge into water to get his fish. The hippopotamus were actually moving. In fact, one came up and opened it's mouth wide and then proceeded to poop. And let me tell you, they do it with some force. It was quite comical to watch everyone jump out of the way.

Thursday was Thanksgiving and we learned from 2007 when we had a dinner consisting of WalMart fare. This year we all went to Cracker Barrel and had some yummy down-home cooking. Then we made it to a park for the kids to enjoy.

Friday was the day we saw the Natural History Museum. This was great and the adults were more than happy to be done, but the kids couldn't leave without seeing Explora (the Children's Museum). It didn't help that it was right across the street as we were leaving the Natural History Museum. In the end, the adults gave in and we all went and had a great time.

The rest of the time we spent at our hotel enjoying time spent together and swimming, and swimming, and swimming. Many games of Rat-A-Tat-Cat, Phase 10, and Settlers were also played. And who could forget the fun the adults had in the evening just catching up.

Just as we were leaving Saturday we decided to take a few family photos. It's quite funny trying to get that many kids to smile at the same time. Bribery took place and, really, they did quite good. Overall, the kids were awesome together and we had so much fun. I think we have decided to try a new location for 2011, just for a change of scenery, but this year was loads of fun. We just wish we could see even more of our family.

Behind Holidays..Halloween

Well, it must be completely obvious to everyone that I am way behind. My hope is to have three posts over the next two weeks or so. I know it is Christmas, but I am still behind from Halloween so here goes.

All the kids had creative ideas this year. As you can see from the photos they all had great fun with their costumes.

Zach was a ranger. He had just finished reading the Rangers Apprentice (thanks to my Mom for the whole series) and had to be one for Halloween. It was kind of fun, because not many knew what he was. (FYI: they wore long cloaks that can virtually make them invisible when they don't move and are expert marksman on the bow and arrow.)

Josh loves anything to do with video games. Is it little wonder, then, that he was Mario from Super Mario Bros. I think this might have been his favorite costume to date.

Matt batted around so many creative ideas it was hard to keep up. He even said, at one point, that he wanted to be a werewolf skeleton cowboy. What the heck is that? Eventually he came up with Santa Claus, which I thought was a great idea. However, trying to find a kids Santa costume around Halloween was impossible. So out came the sewing machine. He loved it and still wears the hat around the house.

Emma was easy. She either wanted to be the same butterfly she was last year or Ariel. We found Ariel's wedding dress and she instantly fell in love. So Ariel at her wedding she was. Sometimes it makes me laugh how all girl she is.

Halloween was lots of fun. The church trunk-or-treat is always a huge success. The next evening was Halloween and we met up with three other families and went around our neighborhood. Zach and Emma were finished after about ten houses, but we had to make it back to our own. Matt and Josh could have gone most of the night. You can certainly tell which ones I can use candy on as a motivation. One Halloween down, who knows how many more to go...

Josh's Baptism

Well, it's the day after Halloween, but I am close to what I promised. I'll post about Halloween later, but I didn't want to leave out Josh's baptism (which is certainly more important).

Since Josh's birthday is the last day of August, his day to be baptized didn't come around until September 27th. My parents have made great efforts to be here for all their grandkids' baptisms, and this time was no different. They flew in on the Friday before, and then we had them until the next weekend. It was so much fun, as it always is. We made the perennial trip to Chuck-E Cheese. But, since Zach was just getting over the flu and Josh caught it right after the baptism, not to mention that Grandma was sick when she came, we did alot of relaxing around the house for the rest of the time, which was kind of nice.

The day of the baptism, Troy was down in San Marcos teaching and didn't get back until 4:30 or so. That worried me that something would happen to delay him, but he made it back with plenty of time to spare, since the baptism was at 6:30 pm. That morning, my parents and I baked...and baked...and baked. We had plenty of goodies, went to Church, ran around like crazy people, came home, had dinner and made our way over to the church.

The baptism was really nice. I conducted the music, Grandpa gave the talk on baptism, Troy baptized and confirmed Josh, and Grandma gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. Everything was great. I especially liked my parents talks. My Dad wrote Josh a letter he can always keep and read it to him. It was very touching. My mom talked about the GIFT of the holy ghost and what TREASURES it gives us. She had a visual treasure box with gems inside, which Josh thought was the best thing ever. The blessing after receiving the Holy Ghost was my favorite part. It is always so aspiring to me to hear my kids potential.

Perhaps the only downside, was that many in our ward were also sick with the flu, like us. This made for a smaller audience, but also made things a little more intimate. Overall it was great and Josh made an important step in the right direction. We are so proud of him. We wish some of our other family could have been there, but we are just under 2000 miles away, which makes that kind of impossible. Here's hoping that we all can be making that step in the right direction.

I stink!

So, I know I said I would be posting more often...but, here are my excuses:

1. All four kids have gotten the swine flu, one right after the other. That means we have done this for a month now.

2. We had family in town for Josh's baptism.

3. Josh got baptized and we were baking up a storm. (More on this with another post...I promise)

4. I am teaching 13 piano students.

5. I broke my foot and am in a walking cast.

6. Troy had knee surgery two weeks ago.

7. I have 3 boys doing flag football. That means 3 hour to hour-and-a-half practices, and 3 games each Saturday.

8. By the end of the day I can't keep my eyes open. I fell asleep on the couch at 9:30 last night.

Okay, I am done explaining. None of it changes the fact that I need to keep trying. So, I am vowing, here and now, that you will see a post about Josh's baptism before Halloween. (I know that is a long way off, but I can make that...I think?)

We've got Talent

So, the other day, my sister-in-law mentioned how she reads our blog, but there are few posts. Lately, it's all I can do to breathe, let alone post. But, just knowing she reads has motivated me to try a little harder...so here goes.

Our ward had a talent show on Friday and all my kids performed. Zach, Josh and Matt all did judo moves to the oohs and ahs of the audience. This was no easy feat, because all my boys are definitely stage shy, but they did amazing. I was very impressed. Emma had told me that she wanted to sing Twinkle, Twinkle so I put here in the line-up. She was so excited, she decided to dress up like a butterfly with wings and everything. As it was her turn, she jumped up excited and waited for me to come stand by her. And after that, she wouldn't make a sound. So I ended up singing an impromptu solo and interjecting her own little way of singing on the last line. I stated that if Emma had sung it would have sounded like, "Twinkle, twinkle little star. How my wonder what you are."

I just wanted to remember that moment. Sweet little Emma all dressed up and not quite being able to pull it off. In the end, she walked away happy and even mentioned about what a good job SHE did! How I love this girl! Oh...and the camera never quite made it to the show. It seems like I can't quite get everything together anymore and picture-taking has taken the brunt of it. So, instead you get another picture of our cutie!

Moving on Up!

We have been in the new house for about three weeks now and, as you can imagine, it has been hectic, crazy and fun! Many thanks go out to all the people who watched my kids while I was packing, moving and unpacking. It would not have been near as smooth without you.

I thought I would post what the house looks like now. I tried to take photos that were similar to what I posted before; when the house was in mid-construction.

The outside of the house looks better with grass and trees in front.

The kitchen now has everything in place that I talked about.

Looking out to the front of the house from the great room. I painted the stair wall green (three different colors before this one). There is still some debate about how much I like it. Troy wants me to "live with it for a while and it will grow on me."

Things went fairly smooth. Our only hiccup was that the construction manager decided to quit a couple weeks before the closing and had not worked on the house long before that. Luckily, they got a great guy in who finished most everything. There are a couple things we are still waiting on and, of course, things we have found that need fixing, but, overall, we love it!

Besides the move, we have been busy living life also. We've done swim lessons for two weeks and have another two weeks coming up. We haven't done much of our day trips, but we are planning on making most of them up this month. Piano lessons continued on schedule (although...looking back I would have taken at least one week off). And our usual, meetings, church get-togethers, wedding receptions, and visits happened too. Perhaps the most exciting children event was both Zach and Josh getting belt promotions after doing Judo camp for a week.

Zach getting his promotion to green belt with blue stripe.

Josh being promoted to an orange belt.

I hope to blog more often now that the move is over with, but there are never any guarantees. Overall, life has been CRAZIER than normal, but things are getting back to the normal craziness. Well...maybe a little crazier than normal with all the house projects I have planned. Here's hoping that your normal life craziness is full of laughter.

A Not-so-Quick Update!

I've been putting this off for a while, but I realized I don't have to have pictures to blog, so here goes.  Everything has gone fairly smooth for the new house.  Somebody signed the rental contract within about two weeks of putting it on the market.  Their move-in date is July 15, so we will be out of the current house by July 14.  The new house is coming along well and we close on July 10.  That gives us a weekend to move everything over and Monday for Troy to set up the fish tank.  I think this will take longer than a single day, Troy doesn't---we'll see who wins.

The only downside is that interest rates went up before we could lock.  Originally we were quoted 5%, but with a little work, and constant monitoring we locked at 5.5%.  If things go back down in the under 5 range we'll just have to think about refinancing.

As for the rest of our lives, it has been typical Winward fare.  Zach finished his spring flag football season and did really well.  He is such a good little defensive player.  He did try out the offensive side for a couple games, but much prefers to be defensive.  All in all, he won a game (something he hasn't done with any other flag football team) and is excited for the next go around.

The last month of school was CRAZY!  There was constantly something going on, but the kids had a blast.  Matt got signed up for kindergarten next year.  As we were turning everything in, we found out that Matt wasn't up to date on his shots.  Thinking about it, I realized that I had never taken him in for a four (or five for that matter) year checkup.  Needless to say, when we went in he needed five shots and one more in six months.  He is the only one of my kids that I thought might not freak out and he...DIDN'T.  I handed him my phone, so he could play soccer while the shots were happening.  The nurse wasn't particularly fast with the shots and left a good ten seconds in between each shot (anyone with kids knows what I'm talking about when I say make it extremely quick and everything goes better).  But he didn't cry once!  He did say things like..."Ow that hurt" or "Owww"  but he didn't scream or even ask if it was over yet.  Emma was with me, so hopefully she took good notice and will react the same way but I am not holding my breath.  Who am I kidding?  She will scream and yell like a banshee!

The rest of our time was spent finishing preschool, attending a coworker of Troy's marriage, enjoying pool and barbecue time for Memorial day, multiple play dates, the father and son campout, Troy teaching his first PT residency class, my birthday week, the easiest enrichment I have ever been in charge of, regular piano lessons moved to only two days a week for the summer, and attending a little girl's relay for life as she fights cancer.

A note about this little girl, Gracie.  She is an amazing three year old who has taught me (and I'm sure multiple others) the value of "being as a small child."  I have often watched one of her older sisters and younger brother as she makes the trip down to Houston for treatments and every time she comes back smiling.  There is a link to her website on the side--welovegracie.blogspot.com.  If you are ready for some laughter and tears you should check it out.  Be forewarned that she had to lose one of her eyes because of cancer growth and there are some bold pictures, but the general gist of the blog is positive and filled with love.  I have certainly been blessed in knowing her and her parents.

The next month brings the return of our weekly daytrips to alleviate boredom, the summer fun box, the packing up of our current house, closing and moving into our new house, multiple piano lessons, Troy assisting and teaching a lot, cub scout camp for Zach and Josh, and multiple church events and teaching.  It's never dull!  And, really, we wouldn't have it any other way!  Hope your summer is filled with fun and relaxation.

A New House & Zach's Tenth

Life has been more than crazy the past month or so.  We had two sets of great friends come visit us for a couple days each.  Both the Wilsons and the Johnsons came to visit.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures, but we had lots of fun with the kiddos and many a late night talking and playing Settlers.  The only thing that would have made it better was if they had visited at the same time and we could have relived old memories of Sunday get-togethers.

Not long after they left, a friend from church mentioned about some great deals on new houses in her neighborhood.  I was curious and began looking at what was available.  To make a long story short, the price and interest rate was something we just couldn't pass up, so we have bought a house and are set to move in the end of July.  Our only hiccup is getting somebody to rent our current place, but we have three months and that is usually about how long it takes to get things rented around here right now.  Either way, contingencies are in place and we are on our way!

My parents have been great in helping us on our, rather unexpected, house search and wanted to see some pictures.  So, with no further ado, here are pictures of our house-in-progress (set to be finished the end of June).

Front of the house with a little Miss Emma (in a chocolate ice cream stained shirt) out front.

An okay shot of one side of the kitchen.   Granite countertops, a built in oven, a gas stove top, an undermount sink, and stainless steel appliances are a few of the items still on their way.  Don't you just love the plate left from one of the workers?  YUCK!

The far side of the great room.  I just love all the light that comes in, but I am not sure what to do with that huge nook over the fireplace.

Looking from the great room to the front of the house.  They already put in wrought iron ballisters which I am excited about since we have replaced two wooden ones in our current rental due to children mishaps.

But, in all the hullabaloo, Zach's birthday shouldn't be forgotten.  He turned ten...TEN on Easter Sunday and got everything he really wanted.  He had been making a list and adding up all the amounts to make sure he had enough since February.  So thanks go out to Grandma Karen and Grandpa Mike, Aunt Janae, and Great Grandma for all their contributions to get Zach the perfect birthday full of all the things he really cares about right now (i.e. two dragons, numerous bakugans, and a watch). 

He opted for the Baskin Robbins ice cream cake route and it sure was yummy.  We celebrated his birthday all week long, just like always, and ended up going bowling, eating at Texas Roadhouse, playing games and having fun.  He is such a good kid, even in his fits of independence and sometime defiance.  He loves to be the oldest and "take-care" of all the other kids, but it is especially cute to watch him with Emma.  We sure love this guy.

So those are just the unusual things we have been doing.  Life is still full of all the usual craziness and we, as always, feel like we are constantly moving.  Troy is going to Atlanta tonight to teach his first continuing education course.  He will do great, but I am sure going to miss him for the next three days.  So there it is, the current updates on our latest and greatest.

Be Careful What You Wish For

Things in this part of Austin have been pretty dry for the last year and a half.  I was just reading in the newspaper about how we are now in a level four drought situation, the worst rating possible, even with the rain we got a week ago.  So, I'm sure there has been many a person wishing for some more rain.  I know we have been, so our grass will grow without too hefty a water bill.  But, yesterday we got a little more than we bargained for.

The news had been saying all day that we might get severe weather.  But, Troy didn't know that and was on his way home in the car when the worst of it hit.  His windshield took some major damage.

Some of the hail was quite large.  At our house the largest one we saw was bigger than a golf ball but smaller than a tennis ball.  And guess what?  Those things can tear holes in your car!

The roof has taken on quite a dimpled appearance, and I don't have pictures, but you can imagine the hood, and back look just about the same.

But the biggest worry (for me at least) is Troy's head.  He was driving down the freeway and had just gotten off when the windshield began taking quite a beating.  At one point he was quite certain it would shatter, so he pulled off to a store parking lot (and, of course, it was a fish store).  He got his backpack ready and opened the door.  But before he could cover himself, he took a hail to the head.  This picture doesn't really do it justice, since I had just cleaned it, but it was still bleeding several hours later.  I'm sure it did not feel the best.

So, the real fun is that the insurance for this car is just liability since it's ten years old and paid off.  The positive, is that all we will fix is the windshield and continue driving it.  We plan on replacing it toward the end of next year, after we buy a house.  So our total cost will run us less than $200.  A few more positives I was just thinking about; Troy seems to be doing fine, the windshield held long enough for Troy to be safe, we didn't break any windows in the house (we have a good friend who did), and we rent so if there is roof damage we don't have to deal with it.  Reminds me of a quote, "There is always, Always, ALWAYS something to be grateful for."  And the moral of the story is, be careful what you wish for, because Heavenly Father certainly has a sense of humor.

It's a Crazy Life, but it's Our Life!

Growing up, I remember my mom saying how life just keeps getting busier, and I just thought, in my teenage know-it-all way, "Sure Mom.  Whatever you say."  Now I realize just how true her statement was.  I also realize that I greatly underestimated how much time my new calling would take.  Not that I begrudge the time or would even want to change things, but it's a good reason for why my blog has taken a back seat to other things.

Life keeps moving around here and both Zach and Josh finished their basketball seasons the last Saturday of February.  Josh had never played organized basketball before and it was quite fun to see him understanding so much more.  His level of play was just half-court ball, which is very fast-paced.  This pace was a little challenging for him, at first, because things quickly change from offense to defense and you need to be on top of things.  Really, he just isn't that aggressive when he plays sports right now.  If there is a rebound to go for, he'll try, but if the other guy wants it too, he'll just give it up with a thought that goes something like this, "Well, if you really want it, I don't need it that bad."  His little team was decent and they easily won their first playoff game.  The most exciting event was that Josh made his first basket, ever, during this game.  It was so exciting I forgot to take the picture, but here is another one of him playing.  After winning the first game, his team got to play in the finals.  Unfortunately, his team lost this game and weren't champions, but they really did well.  All in all, Josh learned A LOT, and had a great time and that was the goal all along.

Zach has played basketball before and has always had some misfortune in the team he plays for.  By this, I mean that his teams have never been very good and this season was no different.  His team never won one game, including the playoff game, although that was the closest game of the season.  I really think these experiences are good for Zach, though, because he tends to be extremely confident and this helps keep him on a more humble path.  Also, he remains more teachable this way and it was fun to see him continuing to learn basketball.  He was quite the little player, one of those guys who was everywhere.  He also really learned to enjoy taking the ball all the way and scoring.  This is something he did little of before this season, so that was a nice change.  He also tied with one other guy on his team for Top Scorer and was quite proud of that fact.

This day was challenging for me because Troy had to teach down in San Marcos all day and wasn't there to help out.  And wouldn't you know it, there were games at the same time in different locations.  This meant I took Josh to his first game and got to watch half of it.  By that point, I knew they were going to win and could leave Josh for a little to take Zach to his first game.  When we got Zach to his game, I also got to stay and watch the first half.  Then back to watch the last little bit of Josh's second game and race back to watch the last little bit of Zach's game.  Through it all, Matt and Emma were good troopers.  Emma found a purple ball at Josh's game and was reluctant to leave it until I told her I would take a picture of her with it...that made everything OK.  All in all, the seasons were good and the boys both learned the fundamentals better and enjoyed themselves.

The next day, Troy was still teaching and wasn't home.  And wouldn't you know it, it was Stake Conference and Matt's birthday.  Now, let me tell you two hours of sitting is a lot for anyone, let alone four young children, so the last half an hour was a little, should I say wiggly?  But the kids really did very well.  When we got home, Matt got to open some of his presents and everyone was thrilled to be able to play with new toys.  As soon as Troy got home, Matt opened his remaining presents and then we went over to a friends house for dinner and the cake and ice cream.  Of course, I forgot my camera, but our friends, the Fowles, took some great photos that I will be getting soon.  Before accepting their invitation, I asked Matt if he would be okay doing the candles, cake and ice cream at their house.  He answered in typical Matt fashion, that it would be great.  He really is such an easy going, happy-go-lucky guy.  You got to love that!

The remainder of the time between this post and last was filled with a quarterly enrichment birthday bash, speaking in church for both Troy and I, teaching a presidency lesson for me,  Troy teaching the Gospel Essentials class several times, piano lessons, sister visits as a presidency, two birthday week celebrations (since Troy's birthday is the week before Matt's), numerous friends for dinner, numerous children playdates,  secret valentines, Josh's turn at being the kid of the week at school, my turn at teaching preschool and the usual other things.  Life just keeps on going.  Next week, Zach starts back up with football and things will get slightly busier again, but we wouldn't have it any other way.  Here's hoping I find a few minutes in between the madness to post a little more often!

Another Month

Where does the time go?  I have been meaning to do a post for about two weeks now, but each night I am tired and exhausted and laying on my couch seems so much more tempting.  Today, all my kids are home for the next three days and, wouldn't you know it, they want to just stay home and play.  So with them busy, I thought I would make myself busy and actually post.

After the Christmas tree farm we continued with the rest of Christmas preparations.  I won't do a big Christmas post, because...well it's kind of late for that.  But we did put up the lights, attend Christmas school parties, enjoy our ward dinner, and appreciate days with no school.  I had to include this picture of Emma.  For church the Sunday before Christmas, we put Emma's hair in curlers and dressed her in her new Christmas dress.  This was Emma's first experience with sponge curlers and the funniest thing was seeing her brothers' reactions to curlers.  They found them amazing and fun, much more so than Emma.

But with all the Christmas preparations, the icing on our Christmas cake was Aunt Janae coming down on the 23rd and staying with us for the next ten days.  The only downside was that her dog Max made the trip and came down with some serious health issues.  To make a long story short, he required emergency surgery on Christmas Eve and then had to stay for the next three or four days.  After he came home, he developed pneumonia and another trip to the emergency vet.  But even with all the stress, we loved having Janae with us.  The other exciting fun, was that my parents came on Christmas day, much to the surprise of my kids.  Grandma and Grandpa wanted to keep the trip a surprise, so Troy and I did.  Their reaction to the surprise was so cute.  After the doorbell rang, they went and looked out the half glass door and saw Grandma and Grandpa.  Instead of running to open the door, they stood their amazed and kept saying, "It's Grandma and Grandpa.  Why are they here?"  It was funny.

Needless to say, with family in town we had tons of fun.  Emma's birthday was on the 2nd and Janae's birthday was on the 1st.  We celebrated their birthdays with cake and ice cream on the 1st because Janae was leaving the following morning.  It was so cute to see Emma open her presents because she was delighted with each one.  It didn't matter whether they were shoes, clothes, or a princess dress up, her reaction was the same.  Janae got a pair of flip-flops and vet bills paid, so she was excited too.  We also did our weekly celebration like normal except that we celebrated the both of them together.  We had a fun bowling trip, dinner at Texas Roadhouse, a trip to Chuck E Cheese right before Grandma and Grandpa left, and an enjoyable movie night.  We also let the kids stay up until midnight for New Year's Eve and had a blast watching a movie, playing games and laughing.

After family was gone, things got back to normal.  A less fun normal, but normal none the less.  School started back up and kids got back into the swing of things.  Report cards came home, with great results for both Zach and Josh.  For that we are grateful and celebrated with ice cream cones at home.  The rest of our days were filled with a full schedule of piano lessons, pine wood derby celebrations, Relief Society meetings, stake meetings, judo, playdates, preschool, judging the high school science fair, and basketball games and practices for both Zach and Josh.  Life is never dull around here.  But, Josh's biggest news was that he has lost both front teeth.  We made him sit and take a picture so we could record this time.  Now we can look back and wax nostalgic about fun kid times, when the biggest worry was how much money the tooth fairy would bring.  You gotta love the simple moments.  It reminds me of a vinyl quote I did the other day, "Life isn't measured in time, but in treasured moments."  How true!