AF Canyon Half

After 4 months of training, I was ready to run my first official half marathon. And then I got sick! Well the whole family got sick! ugh. I battled with the worst chest cold for 12 days but it eventually went into my sinuses. And I'm crazy... I didn't give up. I still ran. I figured I would take it easy. I woke up at 3:30am to get ready and shuttled to the start line. Race started at 6am. We finished 2 hours later! The AF canyon half is a fun race with kneaders french toast at the finish line! Very pretty course. I hope to do it again and feel better when running next time!

Swim Lessons

 This would have been the summer without taking the 5 kids to the pool if we hadn't gotten them water safe first! This was a a big (and expensive) priority for this summer.

 We had been doing lessons at the local Lindon City Pool for 6 years and I saw very little improvement and didn't feel any of the kids were "water safe". I wanted to feel a little more relaxed knowing I'd be OK to turned my back for a second (which is likely to happen when I have all kids at the pool).

We decided to try something new this year and get them 10 private lessons. It was harsh at first, but they needed to know how to feel comfortable in deep water, how to float on their back and get to a wall by themselves.

 Calvin was the hardest to get "there". He cried every day for the entire lesson. Crying for mom, crying for his towel. Until day 9. Something clicked and he "got it" and even started to enjoy floating on his back (as seen here, totally relaxed)! I need to work with him on his pool exit. But he's close, very close!

Eli is very confident in the water. His teacher thought Eli was the greatest kid ever and loved working with him! After Eli got the safety part down, they moved on to strokes and breathing. Eli loves going deep and diving for rings.

Zoey and Jackson spent most the time working on fine tuning their strokes, dives and getting ready for swim team. The teachers were really good at finding Jackson's and Zoey's weak spots and knowing exactly how to correct them. The kids were a little uncoordinated at first, but showed great progress by the end! 

Now we need to go to the pool and use our new talents! 

Soccer

Another season come and gone. Jackson has loved it. His favorite part is just being social. He's a competitive boy, but he hasn't brought that into the game yet. He enjoys seeing classmates from school on opposing teams and talking with them. It's enjoyable to watch.

Isaac's 6 month update

 Tomorrow is Isaac's half birthday! He's currently miserable with a cold that the kids have picked up from swim lessons and spread around the family. But on a usual day, he's pretty happy. My favorite thing he does right now is reach out to touch faces. He's always been a social baby, but if a person is talking or holding his attention, he'll reach out to touch their face. I love it.

He is such a thumb sucker!  It's been a pleasant thing because he doesn't like the binky so it's the one thing that really soothes him. He's so addicted to it that he will suck on it between spoonfuls of food (yup, he's on solids now too), or wedge it in while he's nursing (which doesn't helps so he gets frustrated)! He's gaining weight and getting cute chubby rolls. I love his soft skin. His favorite solid foods so far are the fruits (of course), and beets and carrots. He eats pretty well but still spits up, so instead of clear spit-up, it takes on the hue of the last meal he ate and it always sparks a comment from one of the kids who is grossed out by it!

He's sleeping great through the night. On some mornings, I'll go into his room to check if he's up yet, and find he's just laying on his back sucking his thumb waiting for me to get him. He's so cute at that moment because his eyes turn into huge smiles and his whole body exudes happiness. He likes to be tickled, play peek-a-boo, and being held by his mama. He's such a sweet baby!

Painted ladies

We had a lesson in mom school a while back about the life cycle of the butterfly. We did lots of fun things surrounding it, but nothing more memorable for the kids than actually getting caterpillars and watching the cycle for themselves!

On Saturday, our little caterpillars finally emerged from their chrysalises (or tombs as Eli called them). They each got to set one free. It was a very fun event for them to participate in. They enjoyed watching the butterflies long tongues drink nectar we placed for them. They were awed at getting to hold one, and so thrilled to see them finally get the courage to flutter away! 

Summertime Sanity

Summer is in full swing! The last day of school was Friday. I didn't make Jackson go because it was only 1 hour. So...we started our Summer vacation a little earlier. He was SO ready to be done with school.  Who can blame him? I totally remember what it was like. I envy the kids' enthusiasm towards summer and hope I can make some good memories with the them like I had growing up.

BUT. It only took two days of having all the kids home together (all the time) to remind myself what summer is like...not the quaint expression referring to the lazy days, that's for sure!

I was reminded how many times I'd have to repeatedly ask someone to shut the back door, how often I would find wrappers to snack items all over the house, the kitchen treated like a 24 hour feeding station, how often I would be asked "Can I watch TV?", and how many times I would find wet clothes on the floor from kids playing in the hose and changing out of those wet clothes in any old spot that suits them in the moment.

I worked really hard to kick off those first few days packed with fun things for the kids and I felt the only return I got was a bunch of tears, fights, and back-talk of them telling just what they were NOT going to do. OR, what they would do (after much coercion) but that they WOULD NOT enjoy it (my favorite line from Zoey)!! I wondered how I would survive 12 weeks of this :)

So.  I made a chart, a schedule and a reward system. So far, it's been effective (of course we're only 3 days into it)!

This might be boring for others, but I post it because I want to remember what the summer of 2014 looked like for us (at least on paper). Here is our rough outline of what we do each day.

The kids get rewarded with tickets for doing their chores. They each have to get dressed, make their bed and clean their rooms, brush their teeth and hair. Then they each have an extra chore like windows, laundry, bathroom counters, dishes etc. to help with that day. If we can get through this phase without complaint, they get tickets at our morning devotional. These tickets can be redeemed at the end of the week for prizes at the "mom-store". So far, it's been magic. I hope it lasts!


This schedule worked well for us last year and so we are repeating it this year as well, working it into our quiet times when the little ones are sleeping (Of course our Tuesday Trips will have to be held when the whole crew is awake, but you get the idea)...just something fun to keep the kids from sitting in front of the TV too much. It also helps with the wet-clothes thing by keeping our fun organized and contained... and mom sane.

Today was make something Monday and we made these cute little jellyfish. It was a hit. Zoey especially loved dancing with hers all over the yard.

It's only the beginning of summer, and our new routine, but it's been such an improvement to the kids' behavior that it makes me hopeful I might enjoy summer vacation too :)