Week Forty-Two

I always write these blog posts on Sunday nights.  It is a good time for me to sit down and reflect on the past week and take some time to myself.  Tonight as I write, I am asking myself what was important from this last week.  As I think about this question, I'll jot down my thoughts.

1)  I did two more photo sessions this week.  This time of year, I always have people emailing or calling me at the last minute to get pictures.  I try not to turn people down because it is decent money and I enjoy the learning, but I have to note that when I do more than one session a week, it makes me very stressed out.  I'm not really sure what my future with photography holds.  I would love to have, what I consider, a legitimate business, but I don't want to sacrifice my sanity!

2) I went to watch Brooklen play hockey yesterday. I haven't gone and watched him for a few weeks. I was SO impressed with his progress.  What a difference practice has made.  He is much more skilled in his skating and he is being quite a bit more aggressive.  I am so proud of him for working hard.

3)  On Friday night, the girls got to go to a fun Halloween party at Sienna's house.  I wanted to be a bit spontaneous, so I didn't make dinner and told Brooklen that he could pick anywhere he wanted for us to eat at.  He really wanted to go to a good burger place, so we ended up at Big E's, a sports bar that is attached to the Holiday Inn.  The meal was more pricey than we usually spend and the food was a bit underwhelming, but I could tell that it made Brooklen feel so good to get to pick the place. Kaiton was asleep for the entire meal, so it really got both Rob and I to himself.

4)  Hurley lost her first tooth at Sienna's party!  The tooth fairy was tired and forgot to visit on Friday night.  On Saturday night, she showed up and left 2 dollars that were folded into hearts for Hurley.

5)  Kaiton has really started testing Rob and I this week.  I put him in time out twice today and he started biting me when I went to get him to show me how mad I was.  I hate being stern with him, but it is time to start discipling him.  I want him to grow up to be well-behaved and sweet, like the rest of our kids.

6) Today the kids performed the primary program in church.  I played the piano for it.  I was impressed with all 3 of my kids; they memorized their parts without us asking them to.  I guess peer pressure works!!!

Week Forty-One

This past week I started getting ready for Halloween.   Zaya and I worked at getting the house a little bit decorated for the holiday.  I also started preparing my kid's parties for school.  This year I am going to be a room mom in both Brooklen and Hurley's classrooms.  There are 5 other room moms in Brooklen's class, so I shouldn't have a lot of work in there, but I think I will be doing most of the planning for Hurley's parties.  I really love being able to have that job, since being a room mom is something that I can do from home and I don't have to schedule babysitters for my younger kids.

On Monday, I also got another chance to work in Zaya's classroom.  She really thrives in social situations and she absolutely LOVES doing her work.  All three of our older kids are so focused when it comes to school.  She is so meticulous when she is doing her work and makes sure that she does everything perfect.

Later in the week, I also had the chance to work in Hurley's class.  She is a very good student.  She too, is very focused and intense at school.  She is so well behaved and I have peace in knowing that all of our kids will be respectful when they are in outside environments.

On Friday night, Rob took Brooklen to hockey and after hockey Brooklen got to go with the Nymans to the Bridgeport Haunted Train Ride.  He had a blast with Jake and he said that he wasn't scared.  I stayed at home with Hurley, Zaya, and Kaiton.  We played in the basement and then we went upstairs and cuddled in my bed while we watched "Frozen."  We had so much fun and even Kaiton paid attention throughout the entire movie.

On Saturday, Rob and Brooklen went to hockey in the morning. When they got home, I took the girls out and ran a few errands.  During the afternoon, Rob and I got some work done around the house and in the yard. Later in the afternoon, I went to the back of our neighborhood with the girls to take pictures of the Bills family.  Brooklen went over to Jake's house to watch the Michigan vs. Michigan State game (he ended up staying there until 9pm)!  Rob had to leave at 6pm to attend a stake youth fireside. Again, I stayed at home with the girls and with Kaiton.  We worked on our jump roping skills in the basement and then we took baths and watched a Barbie movie while I blow-dried the girl's hair.

Today, we went to church and then came home and relaxed for a while.  This afternoon, Alta Bills took our family photos.  We haven't had family photos done since Zaya was 9 months old.  It was a lot of work to get outfits together, but I'm glad we finally got pictures done and I'm glad I found someone to trade with.  This evening, we took a nice Fall walk around the neighborhood and then the kids played outside a bit with the Nymans.

Week Forty

As I sit here on Sunday night reflecting on the past week, I am finding it a bit frustrating that I can't remember much about this week.  I think that this period in my life is so busy that I sometimes it just seems to be rushing by.  My kids are growing bigger everyday and some days I think I definitely forget to be grateful for all of the little moments, even if they are busy and often frustrating, that I have with my sweet family.  

We had some awesome fall weather days this week.  On Tuesday morning, the weather was perfect and I had remembered that Zaya had a new bike basket that Jenna gave her.  She had mentioned to me a couple of times that she really wanted to pack a picnic and carry it in her bike basket.  She is still a new rider, so I didn't think she could quite make it to the park, but I asked her if we could pack a few snacks and go for a ride.  I was surprised at how far she rode.  I had to run with the stroller to keep up with her.  We rode all the way through the Oakridge neighborhood to Midland Christian School on Wackerly.  Once we got there, I suggested we take a break and asked if she had any snacks.  She was so excited to be able to pull the snacks out of her bike basket and provide for Kaiton and I.  I made sure to complement her riding skills a lot on the trip and once we made it home, it was very apparent that she was proud of herself.

The kids had the day off of school on Friday.  We took the kids to Leahman's Green Apple Barn in Freeland.  It was a splendid day!  All four of our kids were entertained and the orchard for hours.  We played mini golf, looked at pumpkins, played in the sand, rode the barrel ride, looked at animals, and of course, ate cider and donuts.  We ended up being there for several hours.  At the end, we even convinced the kids to go through the corn maze with us.  Although Brooklen and Hurley weren't excited about the idea, they ended up having a great time in the maze.  

After we left Leahman's, we ran to Old Navy and then we went to Chuck E Cheese to let the kids use some extra tokens that we had.  They all just LOVE that place.  We spent about an hour letting the kids play games and then they redeemed their tickets for a few prizes.  After that, we drove home and Rob was so awesome . . . he volunteered to make dinner.  He made these "gourmet" burgers for all of us with pepper jack cheese and apples.  They were delicious and I was so grateful that he stepped up and took charge of dinner because I was pretty beat by the end of the day.

On Friday evening, we played outside for a while and then we had a spontaneous movie night.  We were out playing football and Rob mentioned to Brooklen and me that we needed to have "soft hands."  He started telling us about a scene from the movie, "Mighty Ducks."  I have been wanting show the kids that movie, so when Rob suggested we watch it, I was all in.  Within 20 minutes, we had bathed the kids, rented the movie through Amazon Prime, and we were piled in our bed watching it.  I think all of the kids liked the movie, and it was fun for Rob and I to watch a "classic" from our childhood.  

On Saturday, I woke up and fed the kids and then Hurley, Zaya, and I ran to Meijer to do our grocery shopping for the next week.  At 11:30, Brooklen had hockey, so we all went to watch.  He is learning a lot and I am so proud of him for stepping up and taking on this intimidating sport.  After hockey, we went to Saginaw so that Rob could skydive.  We waited a couple of hours, but the wind was too bad, so he ended up having to postpone skydiving AGAIN!

When we got back to Midland, Rob had to leave to a youth counsel meeting.  He just got called to be the secretary in the Stake Young Men's Presidency.  He will be awesome at that calling!  He left the meeting early to come home and watch the kids so that I could go to a photo session.

Today, we went to church and then came home and enjoyed the 74 degree weather.  We went on a nature walk on a trail off of Saginaw.  The kids enjoyed the time outside and I soaked it in.  I think this week might be the last week of 70 degree weather for the year. 

Week Thirty-Nine

This weekend was conference.  I wasn't able to listen intently to all of the talks, but I will say, that my cup was filled by many of the words that I was able to sit down and listen too.  It is always a struggle to have a spiritual conference experience with four little kids running around, but I was definitely more ready to listen to the inspiring words of the prophet and apostles than I probably ever have been.  I have been in primary/music callings for so long, it has been really hard for me to be spiritually fed.  I love those callings, but while I need to be better at my personal scripture study, I feel like I really need to be taught.  Some of the things that I took from this conference:

1.  I need to be less hard on myself.  I am enough.  I can make my life more simple and stress free by realizing that.

 “With such a glorious future,” Aunt Rose said, “why get swallowed up in the past or present things that don’t go quite the way we planned?” -Elder Uchdorf

2.  One of the general authorities suggested "ponderizing" scriptures.  He and his wife chose a scripture to ponderize every week.  I want to do this for my family.

3.  I was touched by a talk by Elder Bradley Foster.  His talk was entitled, "It's Never Too Early, It's Never Too Late."  He spoke about how we need to ensure that our children don't just hear gospel teachings; they need to understand them.  The need to know that we are always in our corner. This is something that I want to focus on.  I want the gospel to be more of a priority in our home.  I want to develop a stronger bond with my husband and with each of my children.  I want to be an example.

This week went by fast.  I'm not even quite sure what made it busy.  I did watch a kids for a few friends on a few different days.  I also was able to help out in Zaya's classroom.  It was wonderful to be there with her.  She is so smart and so kind to other kids.  I love the person she is becoming.

Brooklen had an important project to work on.  It is due tomorrow.  The kids have been very consistent with doing their homework as soon as they get home, but this project was assigned two weeks ago, and he has been very resistant to even start it.  I have had a hard time with this, but I felt really strongly that it was time for him to learn his own lessons.  I asked him every day if he was ready to start the project and every day, he whined and said, "no."  So, Friday came and I told him he needed to start it.  He whined and was upset but he did it anyway.  Once he started working on it, I think he realized that it would have been easier to start earlier.  I hate having to watch my kids make mistakes and learn life lessons, but at 8, Brooklen is old enough to start doing so.

Today was my birthday.  Brooklen and Rob bought a small knife sharpener and sharpened the knives for me.  I thought this was a very sweet, thoughtful gesture.  Brooklen also got me a U of M shirt.  Tonight, I made Pho for dinner because I love it!  This morning we work up early for a breakfast with the Hales and Ostergaard families.  Then, I took Brooklen, Hurley, Zaya, and Samuel Hales over to the church for Laicee Lowes baptism.  I played the piano for the baptism.

Week Thirty-Eight

It's Sunday night, and like always, I'm sitting down to review the past week and write my thoughts about the things that happened.  I think I'll move backwards this week, since what happened yesterday is what I remember most.

Yesterday, Rob had the opportunity to take Brooklen to the Michigan vs. BYU game at the Big House in Ann Arbor.  One of the Investment Managers that works with the hospital is a BYU alum and got Rob the tickets.  He actually ended up getting another ticket that I could have used, but we didn't have a sitter for the other kids.  Rob and Brooklen left at about 9am yesterday to go down to Ann Arbor.  The game was a total blow-out.  Michigan won 31-0!!!!  Brooklen was super excited he wore Michigan gear and he also made Rob wear his Michigan hat.  I am so glad that they had the opportunity to go to that game.  Brooklen has literally been talking about it for weeks!

While the big boys were at the game, I took the other kids to the library.  After we played and checked out books, we picked up some lunch at McDonalds and headed to Plymouth Park to play and have a picnic.  We enjoyed the gorgeous Saturday weather for a while and then we went to Meijer to our grocery shopping for the week.  Kaiton slept through the shopping trip, which made it go really smoothly.  Then, we went home and put groceries away.  Later, we walked (and rode a scooter) down to the Cottage Creamery to get ice cream.  Hurley, Zaya, and I had a few hula hoop contests (I'm still the champion) and the girls had a blast drawing with sidewalk chalk.  As soon as we got home, we went over to MGTC for open gym  time.  We had gone to Freeland's gym for open gym time on Friday night, but it was super busy and crazy.  We were so excited to find out that there were only 3 other people at MGTC for open gym.  Zaya and Kaiton had a blast jumping on the tumble trak and playing in the cheese.  Hurley spent most of the time working on skills.  She got spooked out doing a front tuck off the tumble trak this week during practice and really wanted to "shake it."  Coach Chris and Coach Tawnee work with her to try to help her figure out how to jump out further.  She was super frustrated.  She is really hard on herself and she was concerned about every single detail.  Unfortunately, by the end of the evening, the problem wasn't fixed, so we will go back next week to work on it.  I am going to have to work with her to make sure that she gives herself a break sometimes.  On a happier note, she showed me how she climbed to the top of the rope AND she is close to getting her back handspring.

The early part of the week was filled with day-to-day craziness.  The weather has been unseasonably warm this week and it was FANTASTIC.  We went on several walks and to the park.  Zaya got to have Nev come over on Thursday and they spent most of the time playing outside.  

Zaya is also doing great in school.  She has very quickly made some great little girlfriends and she is a little social butterfly.  I am so glad I put her in preschool.  I think it is going to be really good for her.

Week Thirty-Seven

This week was all about getting acclimated to our new, busy school-life schedule.  I am only teaching  8 or 9 piano lessons (3 of which are only every other week), but my kids are busy with activities, so we will be running from one thing to the next most days.  I'm trying a new thing this semester.  I'm teaching two of my piano students on Monday mornings from 7:00-8:00am.  I'm not really sure why we chose to do this on Monday mornings, but it definitely helps me to get my week started out nice and early.  I woke up extra early on Monday morning (5:30am) so that I could make breakfast, pack lunches, clean up the house, and get myself ready.  I woke the kids up before I started lessons, and fortunately, they got themselves dressed and ready, ate muffins, and were ready for school when my lessons ended.  My students ride the same bus as my kids, so they were able to hop on the bus with them at 8:12am.

I also started my Wednesday piano lessons this week.  I am only teaching the three Hill girls every other week on Wednesdays.  I pick up the kids at school and get Hurley to gymnastics at 4:15pm.  I have to rush home because I teach piano from 4:30pm-6:00pm.  It actually worked out really nicely.  Rob picked Hurley up from gymnastics and brought her home, we ate quickly, and I took Brooklen to scouts.  Phew!

A couple more important notes from this week:

1.  I FINALLY got my hair done.  I waited 12 weeks to get it colored and I can't do that again.  It was so brassy and oxidized that I think Angela for sure thought that I had applied box color (I swear, I didn't).  Plus, it was hard for her to correct the color and she ended up coloring it way too dark.  I could go back and have her correct it, but I don't really want to add to the damage.  Ugh, I was already feeling pretty bad about my hair and now the color is not good either.  . . oh well, I  learned my lesson.  I'll have to wait 8 weeks to get that fixed.

2.  Rob's skydiving got cancelled again!  Fall weather is always really cloudy.  We will try again in 2 weeks.

3.  The boys skipped the father and son's campout because there was a high chance of night time rain. Instead, they went to the batting cages for 3 hours!  I took the other kids to the park and then we picked up ice cream for everyone on the way home.

4.  Brooklen started hockey on Saturday.  I'm praying that it will be a good experience for him.  He is really excited; I hope he has fun and learns a lot.

5.  Zaya loved preschool this week.  Her teachers said that she is very focused on doing her "work."  They said she is well-behaved.

6.  Zaya, Kaiton, and I went to the mall with Nev and her mom, Kari after gymnastics.  We had a fun time socializing and Zaya had a great time playing.  She and Nev are such a good match for each other.  Zaya also had a playdate this week with Lucy.  Lucy's older sister, Abigail, is on Hurley's gymnastics team.  The girls played really well together.  I think it is the first playdate that I can remember where a mess wasn't made (hooray)!

7.  I was supposed to meet with a bride about shooting her upcoming wedding, but she cancelled.  Then, another bride who was going to meet with me cancelled.  I'm telling you, this business is tough stuff.  I'm still trying to figure out how not to get my feelings hurt.  I hope I can stick it out and learn enough to be good at it and to sell myself.  I need to set down and make some serious goals for myself.

Week Thirty-Six

Monday was Labor Day, aka the last day of summer vacation for my kids.  We started out the morning thinking Rob was going to do his "makeup" sky diving session.  We had planned to drive down to the Detroit area.  But before we got on the freeway, Rob called the instructor and they decided that it was too cloudy again.  So, we headed home for the day.  We spent most of the day hanging out at home, getting ready for the "big day."

Tuesday morning, we woke up early for school.  I got the kids up at about 7:15, got them ready, fed them, and then we took a few pictures in front of the house.  They headed off to school on the bus and we got in our cars and headed to Woodcrest.  It was a really rainy morning and of course, I had forgotten to bring an umbrella.  We had to park pretty far from the school and walk in the rain to Woodcrest.  We met the kids inside as they came off of the bus.  Then, we walked them to their classes and got them settled.  Hurley has Mrs. McGee this year.  She was Brooklen's first grade teacher and she is such a sweetheart.  Brooklen has Ms. Stanton.  She is a brand new teacher, fresh from Michigan State.  She seemed very impressive and her room was so cute!  After we dropped the kids off in their classes, Rob went to work and I headed home with the two little kids.  We had a wonderful day at home.  Zaya helped me do my chores and we spent the afternoon making dinner together.  

On Wednesday, we sent the kids to school and I think we hung around the house for most of the day.  I have a huge list of chores to get done around the house and I am enjoying being home with the two little ones for part of the day.  In the evening, Brooklen had scouts.  I dropped him off and then I headed to a parent meeting at Chippewa Preschool.  

On Thursday, Zaya started gymnastics again.  She is in a class with Nev Weideman again and there is also a new little girl, Ella, in her class.  She just loves being in that class.  Coach Michelle is amazing with her and I am so glad that she is able to participate in an activity that is fun for her and that makes her feel really good about herself.   Thursday evening was downtown event for the hot air balloon festival.  We took the kids downtown and they collected trading cards for all of the balloons.  They can collect punches as they go by each balloon and once they have their entire card punched, they get a pin and a prize.   The kids love this free event; it has become a tradition for us.

On Friday, Zaya had her first day of preschool.  She was so excited!  Her teachers said that she was shy, but that she was very well-behaved.  On the way home, she told me that she loves it there and that "she never wants to stop going until she goes to Woodcrest."  I love that she is so excited about having her own school.  While Zaya was at preschool, I took Kaiton to Coffee Chaos for a meeting with a bride and her family.  I was preparing to shoot her wedding the next day and I hadn't met her yet.  It was a brief, but good meeting for me.  It helped me to understand their expectations and to help us come up with a timeline.

On Friday night, we went to the Fairgrounds for the hot air balloon festival.  We saw Jeramie and Susie Soderberg there with their 6 kids, and we ended up hanging out with them for the evening.  The balloons couldn't make it off of the ground, due to wind, but we were able to watch the glow and spend time with friends.  It was a good evening.

On Saturday, we spent the morning at home.  Emma Hirschi came over at 2:00pm to babysit the kids while Rob and I went to the wedding.  I was super nervous, but I tried to reassure myself that I could meet and exceed the client's expectations.  It was a very laid back wedding.  It was very small, and fortunately, it was only about 5 minutes away from our house.   There were a lot of things that went wrong.  Nothing major, but, like always, I definitely learned a lot.  One of my biggest takeaways was that I revised my package to be a 4-hour package because they said they didn't need a lot of photography time.  But, I ended up being there just as long as most weddings because the things they wanted were so spread out.  I don't think I will ever revise that again.  Lesson learned . . . since I haven't done many weddings, it was great experience.