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Sunday, April 26, 2015

Week Seventeen

Last Sunday night, we headed out to Mt. Pleasant for a little "staycation" with the kids. We got another great deal at the Soaring Eagle Waterpark and we just couldn't pass it up. For about $120, we got a 1-night hotel stay, 5 water park passes, and a $20 voucher for lunch. The kids just love it when we do this.

On Sunday night, Rob took the kids down to play for a little while. I stayed in the room with Kaiton and hung out with him. The next morning, I ran to Meijer and picked up donuts and milk for the kids to eat for breakfast. I love how excited they get over a hotel stay and a junk food breakfast. They were so thrilled! We spent almost the whole day at the water park on Monday. The Soaring Eagle water park is just perfect for our young kids. It has several slides for little kids, and lots of fun stuff for them to play in. Brooklen was the only one tall enough to go on the big water slide, but the other kids didn't really seem to mind at all. Even Kaiton had a blast! He thought the water slides were so much fun, and he loved the Lazy River too. We ate lunch at the restaurant in the water park and then play for a few more hours. We had to leave at about 3:30 because Brooklen had to get home for hockey.

The rest of the week were filled with baseball practices, hockey practice, gymnastics, and quite a bit of rain. The temperature dropped quite a bit and it felt extra cold because we've had a few warmer days. Since each day wasn't super monumental, I'll recap some highlights from everyone's week.

Rob: His softball practice was canceled this week, but he did get to help Brooklen at Baseball Heaven on Wednesday this week. We met for lunch at Qdoba on Wednesday, and he also had a work lunch on Monday.

Me: I had to rearrange some things because of the kid's sports, so I taught four piano lessons on Thursday and Friday. I've definitely decided that I don't like teaching that many lessons in one day and I ESPECIALLY don't like do them all right in a row. I didn't make much time to work out this week. I need to be ready for the Dow 5k in a few weeks; I ran for a while last night and it was NOT good. I guess I'll have to add in a lot more runs in the next few weeks. I think my biggest challenge with running is that I don't like it. I can push myself so hard with HIIT workouts, but it's hard to get my mind in the game to run.

Brooklen: Brooklen had another busy week again with sports. He got to play hockey several times this week with Jake. They are so cute. Today I watched them for a bit and they commentate their entire game; they even do post-game interviews!

Hurley: We went to the library this week to checkout books for Hurley's animal report. She is going to be researching the beaver. She is excited to do this and we've already read through several of the books. I got to sit in on Hurley's gymnastics class this week. She is doing amazing; you can't even tell that she just joined that class. I was pretty amazed at the workout Lori puts those girls through. They spend about the first 45 minutes just doing strength training. They mostly do exercises that Rob and I use.

Zaya: Zaya enjoyed preschool this week. She also got to play with at Kate's house and she had Jack come over on Friday. She is such a fun girl. She enjoys making up songs and doing crafts. 

Kaiton: Kaiton is completely obsessed with balls and dogs. He points to the garage and makes barking noises when he wants to go see the Nyman's dog, Laney. Jenny Larsen watched him for me during Hurley's gymnastics class this week and she said that he cried for 20 minutes until he noticed her son, Ben, playing basketball outside. She took him outside to watch Ben and she said he was happy from that point on. Kaiton also learned to wave this week. He loves to stand in the doorway and wave to the kids as they get on the bus.

Tonight, we had the sister missionaries come over for dinner. We had a nice dinner with them and the kids enjoyed that they got brownies and ice cream for dessert.

Week Sixteen

This week was fun and crazy. I think we had something schedule every night but one night. Rob started softball practice. He is going to play on a new team this year. The guys from church that he has played with for the last two year decided that they didn't want to play this year. Instead, he is going to play on a team with a guy he knows because he is now on a the board for a company. I am excited and proud of this new opportunity for Rob and I am also excited that he is meeting new people to play with.

On Friday the temperature was 73 and sunny. We had a wonderful evening. We grilled for the first time this year and then we played outside with the Nymans and the Whites and took a couple of walks. I am soooo looking forward to being able to spend more time outside with my family. I have to mention that I also brought the ripstick outside for the time. You have to be a little careful of the cracks in the sidewalk, but it was fun to do it outside and I didn't wipeout!

On Saturday, Brooklen had hockey and baseball. Hurley was invited to Hannah's party at Chuck e Cheese in Saginaw. I took Zaya and Kaiton and ran some errand after I dropped Hurley off. Then, when we went to pick Hurley off, I gave Zaya some tokens and let her play for a while. After we got home from Saginaw, the kids played outside for a few hours. I stained some shelves that we are working on for our basement. It was nice to be productive and have the kids happy at the same time!

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Week Fifteen

Life is exhausting and amazing all at once right now.  I am super stressed and my mind turns in circles constantly.  Too many commitments, responsibilities, ideas, and projects, and too little time. At the same time, everything is absolutely perfect.  The kids are all in activities that they love and we are being kept busy with lots of fun and uplifting things.

On Monday, the kids had the day off of school.  We all went to take Zaya to gymnastics and then we went home and hung out for awhile.  Later in the day, we all went and watched Brooklen play hockey.  I think he is really enjoying hockey, and he is doing amazing!

On Tuesday, Zaya had preschool at Jack's house, and then we spent the rest of the day cleaning up and recovering from Spring Break.  There was a lot of laundry to be done and plenty of messes to be cleaned up.

Zaya had Jack come over and play on Wednesday.  They are so cute together and they really play so well together.  I am excited that they are going to be going to Chippewa Preschool together next year. After school, I taught piano lessons and Rob left work to take Hurley to gymnastics.  She has switched classes again and she is now in Lori's Little Leapers class.  This is her fourth class switch this year, but we have had a terrible time finding a good fit for her.  Lori and Michelle knew that she really needed to be in this class and they recommended that we just switch her over.  Surprisingly, she cried during the whole class.  She knows Lori really well because she coached her for over a year, but I think that she is just really emotional and I also think it has been hard for her to switch coaches and classmates so much this year.  Luckily, we know that this class is the right fit for her and she should be able to stay with this group from this point on.

On Thursday, Brooklen had baseball practice and on Friday, we had nothing schedule, so we were finally able to watch Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone.  Mr. Rajewski read it to Hurley's kindergarten class this year, so I decided to buckle down and read it to Brooklen.  I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the book.  I was also surprised how closely the movie followed the book.

On Saturday, Brooklen had baseball and then hockey.  Hurley went to Addison Jones' birthday party in the afternoon and the kids also played outside with the Nymans and the Whites.

Today, we had our Easter program at church.  The choir performed two beautiful numbers that I was really excited for and proud of.  Rob taught Sunday School today, so I had Kaiton for the second hour.  He spotted Zaya in primary and kept waving at her AND he was saying, "zay zay, zay zay." He is starting to experiment with words.  He says, "mom, dad, good job (when he claps his hands)" and "ruf ruf (when he sees a dog; he LOVES dogs)."  He is obsessed with sports and just loves watching Jake and Brooklen play hockey.  Today, as we were taking a walk, he got really excited.  I looked over, only to realize that he had seen a basketball hoop in someone's driveway.  The weather was gorgeous today (70 degrees).  We played outside and we even grilled for the first time this year!

I wasn't very good about taking pictures this week :(  But, I did snap a few pictures of Kaiton in his favorite chair





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Sunday, April 5, 2015

Week Fourteen

This week was Spring Break.  Although it is difficult to get any of my "mom duties" done while all of the kids are home from school, I love having them here.

On Monday afternoon we went to the pool at Delta College.  We were supposed to meet several friends there, but only one other family showed up.  The pool was surprisingly really clean and it wasn't too stressful to swim with all four of them by myself.  Both Brooklen and Hurley jumped off the diving board (with life jackets) and Brooklen had a blast on the water slide.  Kaiton really enjoyed the water and they had plenty of small fountains and other things for him to play in.  After swimming, we headed to Larkin Park for Brooklen's baseball practice.

On Tuesday we spent the morning at the library.  Brooklen and Hurley don't get to go to the public library much during the school year, so we spent a couple of hours checking out books, playing with toys, coloring,  and making up puppet shows.  When we got home, we had lunch, and then we colored easter eggs.  Since we are not eating food dye in our house anymore, I decided to use natural dyes.  We used yellow onion skins (orange), turmeric (yellow), spinach (light green/brown), and cabbage (blue).  We also bought some really ugly ties from goodwill and made some silk eggs.  They were beautiful!  Next year, I will definitely blow out some eggs and make some of these for decoration.

Tuesday was a nice day outside.  In the afternoon, we also whipped up some chalk paint and the kids painted on the driveway.














Wednesday was April Fools Day.  In the morning, I mixed up some mac n cheese powder with some water and gave it to the kids.  They were excited that I was giving them orange juice, but they were all super disgusted by the joke.  To make up for it, I gave them a glass of milk.  I had added plain gelatin, sweetened condensed milk, nonfat milk, and vanilla so it was like jello.  They all thought it was funny and they were glad that it was tasty!  I also froze Zaya's bowl of cereal.  She was so funny.  She didn't understand that it was a joke; instead she thought it was some sort of cool new breakfast. I think she thoroughly enjoyed chipping away at the cereal and eating it.

At dinnertime, I made a spaghetti pie.  Although it was a fairly gluttonous dish, the kids all liked it.  I also used some pound cake to make "french fries" and chicken nuggets (pound cake covered in frosting and a mixture of toasted coconut and cornflakes). Brooklen had gone to the dollar store with Rob and gotten some bugs to scare me with and he also had Rob give him some money so that he could buy an April Fools joke for everyone else (that Rob wouldn't know about).  He told me about this joke because he was so excited.  He bought a gumball machine and also a box of lemon heads. He told everyone that he had dessert for them and then he let them get a gumball; everyone was surprised when it was a lemonhead!  I love that kid and his enthusiasm.

We also had a chance to go bowling on Wednesday morning.  The three older kids played while I cheered them on and watched Kaiton.  Brooklen won the first game and Zaya won the second game.

Thursday, we finally had time to go to Chuck E Cheese.  My kids just can't get enough of that place.  Brooklen and Hurley were focused on getting the most tickets that they could.  I think all kids go through that phase.  They didn't really care what games they were playing, as long as they could win several tickets at once.  Of course, they also learned the lesson that the tickets at Chuck E Cheese buy crappy toys.  They each had a toy break that afternoon.  I tried to reinforce the lesson that we go to Chuck E Cheese because it is fun, not because you can win great toys.  Zaya cared mostly about riding all of the rides at Chuck E Cheese.  This worked out perfectly because Kaiton is at a perfect age for these too.  He laughed and smiled constantly and got super excited every time I would put him on another ride.  In the end, I think we spent almost three hours at Chuck E Cheese.  I love that my kids can have so much fun there and I love that it isn't a really expensive activity.

On Friday we just hung around the house.  The Nymans were home too, so the kids played over at their house and also at ours.

On Saturday, we went to Home Depot for a kids workshop in the morning.  The kids made a chalkboard flowerpot holder and planted a gladiola bulb.  Then, we came home and watched conference.

Today was Easter Sunday and also General Conference.  I wish every Easter was on General Conference Sunday.  We had such a nice, fun, relaxing day.  We woke up and looked through Easter baskets, hunted for eggs, watched a church video, and ate resurrection rolls.  We all stayed in our pajamas all day.  I tried to convey the spiritual message of Easter to my children.  I'm not sure how successful I was in conveying that message,  but I hope that they felt the spirit and understand how much the Savior loves them.






Sunday, March 29, 2015

Week Thirteen

On Monday, Zaya had her last gymnastics class of the session. Rob came to watch her and I was so glad that he did. Zaya has done so well in gymnastics this year. I am so glad that I went with my gut and decided to sign her up at such a young age. First, she has made enormous progress as a listener. Her coach, Michelle is amazing and has been patient with her. She is so attentive and has learned to listen really well through the experience. Zaya and her friend Nev are the only ones in the class and they are both similarly athletic and coordinated. They are learning things that Hurley hasn't even started learning yet. Zaya really loves this class and I really love when I get to go back and watch everything she has learned.

On Tuesday, we had preschool at our house. The kids in the preschool group are really low key. They mostly just like to play together, so I try to do one simple activity and then I let them play the rest of the time. This week we talked about the letter Y. On Thursday, I cut out some card stock letter y's and had them thread yard through holes. On Wednesday, Zaya had a dentist appointment in Saginaw to work on her grey tooth. I was feeling pretty sad on the drive there. The grey tooth has become a part of Zaya and that little smile is actually something I find unique about her. But, she still said she wanted it to be made white. I always go back with Zaya for her checkups, but when we got there, they told me she needed to go back by herself. I texted Rob and sat there quite upset and worried. Halfway through, I asked the front desk lady to check on her and give me an update. She came back and reported that she was doing great. A few minutes later, the dentist came out with Zaya. Her tooth looks so great. She was happy and didn't seem to be bothered by the procedure or the fact that she had to go back by herself. I am so proud of her! She has made such great strides this year.

Brooklen started baseball practice this week. Between baseball, hockey, gymnastics, softball, piano lessons, and photography, our lives are going to be REALLY busy the next couple of months. On Friday, our neighbor, Charlotte, came by with her two kids after school. The kids all played together until dinner. At dinnertime, Tiffany Quast brought her two boys over. We have joined a date night trade group. The kids played really well together. I was grateful that Rob played with the kids downstairs while I cleaned up our dinner of homemade pizza.

On Saturday morning, we left early to attend the temple. We met the McFarlanes down there. They went to the 9:00 session and we did sealings afterwards. After the temple, we went down to Canton to check on the house, which goes up for sale this week, and then we ate at 5 Guys. Our kids are becoming such big eaters. We bought 3 double cheeseburgers and Brooklen and Hurley each ate one by themselves. We also stopped at Trader Joes and at Gamestop (to get a Wii game for Brooklen). Closer to home, we stopped at Birch Run. We got Brooklen some shirts and new shoes at Under Armour, bought Zaya a shirt at J. Crew, and then we stopped at Sonic on our drive home. It was a busy day (we didn't get home until 8pm), but we had a lot of fun!

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Week Twelve

This week was pretty warm again.  It is so nice to be able to send the kids outside to play with friends.  Brooklen is having a blast working on his hockey, baseball, kickball, and basketball skills with Jake and the girls are enjoying the swingset and coloring with sidewalk chalk.












Brooklen just started a hockey basic skills class.  On Wednesday, Rob took him to get his equipment. He is able to borrow equipment throughout the basic skills course.  We are grateful for that, since we aren't sure that he is going to want to play on a team in the fall.  On Saturday morning, he had his first session on the ice.  I think he enjoyed it, but his helmet was kind of bothering him, so he probably didn't enjoy it as much as he could have.  After the session, Rob took him to get a new helmet. Hopefully when he gets on the ice tomorrow, he will feel better.

Rob is such a good Dad.  He's noticed that Brooklen has been really in to sports lately, so for FHE, he had us all fill out March Madness brackets.  Brooklen has been SOOOO in to it.  He has been following every game and we have heard him say "Your bracket is going to be busted" and "I'm going for the upset" quite a bit this last week.  I love watching him get so in to the game; it makes him so happy!  Currently, Hurley is winning with her bracket.  Brooklen is in 2nd place, followed by Rob, Me, and then Zaya.






Hurley had her first gymnastics meet yesterday.  She did really well; I love watching her play sports because she is so talented and skilled.  Her cartwheels have gotten so good these past few months and she loves showing off for us and for our neighbors.   I was a little sad that she wasn't in the best of moods for the meet.  I think she would have had more fun if she was in better spirits.  But, she really loved the medal that she won.  She kept asking me how "much percent of gold" it was.  Man, I love that little girl!

If you ask Zaya what she wants to be when she grows up, she will tell you that she wants to be an artist.  She loves doing the things that her siblings do and she has learned to love art from them.  Yesterday, we were playing outside and Rob told her to draw a picture of them fishing.  She went right to work and came up with this:





Afterwards, he asked her to draw a picture of the time that she hit Brooklen in the eye with a baseball.  She didn't miss a beat and came up with an awesome drawing!





Kaiton has been a little sick this week, so he has had a couple of rough days.  I have noticed, however, that he is walking a lot more!  He also loves to kick balls and like to "flip," which is essentially the beginnings of a somesault.






 I also took a few shots of him in the bath this week.  He is so funny.  He LOVES taking baths, but he HATES taking showers!