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 :)

5 months!!

Isaac is 5 months old (about 15 pounds)! How time flies. He has cute chubby legs with rolls that remind me of when Zoey was a baby. His skin is so soft and squishy-smooth, I love it. He's found his hands and feet and is learning to use them quite well! 

He started rice cereal and really likes it. He's learning to roll and pick up toys. He loves sucking his thumb! He even sucks his thumb between bites of rice cereal, which makes feeding time a bit messy! He's sleeping 10 hours through the night on most nights, although we do get an occasional 12 hours here and there. Those nights are the BEST!  

He wakes up happy from naps. I love leaning over his crib to get him and see him squeal with delight while kicking his legs and flapping his arms. He may not be able to say words, but it's the best language that tells me he's excited to see me! 

"Bye-Bye Dad-O!"

Of all the morning routines we do each day, our favorite (by far!) is running to the window to wave good-bye to dad (called "Dad-O" at our house) as he leaves for work. We are starting to fill up our window space now that we have five kids crowding to get their share of a view of dad's truck leaving, but we've done this every morning since Jackson was a tiny tike.

We even have a little song that goes like this "Bye-bye dad-o. Bye-bye dad-o. Bye-bye dad-o, we hate to see you go!" We all sing it while we wave and wish him a good day at work. He always reminds us to do something nice for someone else that day. It's a great morning routine. If the weather is warm enough, the kids will actually run after his truck to the corner of our driveway and wave him off.  I will miss this when the kids outgrow it.

Another one bites the dust

Jackson lost his other front tooth last week....literally! He came into our room at bedtime and said he had pulled out his tooth. The bloody mouth and lip and gaping hole in the front attested to this. We went to the bathroom to wash him all up and the darn thing got all slippery and fell out of his hand! At least it didn't go down the drain :)

It took quite a while to find the tiny thing... amidst the dust and other dirt lurking under our bathroom counter, but we finally found it, washed it up and got a proper picture to remember it all! And he had the tooth all cleaned up for the tooth fairy that night (he wondered what would happen if he never found it- I reminded him of the time he swallowed his tooth and the dang nice tooth fairy still left him something under the pillow)!

Birthday Time!

May is full of Birthdays at our house. I couldn't be happier to have these 3 boys in my life! I really feel blessed. Jackson is thoughtful, Calvin is gracious, and Brian is the best thing that's happened to me!

Jackson celebrated his 7th birthday on May 1st. He got a bike from mom and dad, harmonica from grandma/pa Beutler, and outdoor toys from grandma/pa Gray. 

He wanted a fire-breathing dragon cake. So I made a BTS cake with a dragon on top. The fire coming out of the dragon's mouth was "lighting" his birthday candle.

  We celebrated the birthdays by visiting Thanksgiving point (we got free passes from our Tulip Festival Race). We rode horses at the Farm county, went for a tractor ride, and walked through the dinosaur museum. I would have loved to walk through the Tulip Festival Gardens, but we ran out of time, and we were really there to do what the kids wanted anyway :)

Playing in the sand digging for dinosaurs was the highlight for Eli and Calvin at the dinosaur museum. They loved the hands-on displays. Zoey and Jackson loved the star bridge and the new tinker exhibit where they could explore how things function with different science projects.

All the boys had a combined birthday party. Calvin turns 2 on May 8th and Brian turns 35 on the 15th. I made them a 7 layer strawberry cake (vanilla cake layered with pudding, strawberries and whip cream). We enjoyed the company of the grandparents, Danny and Christina and Paul's family. Calvin got a shovel set from Grandma/pa Beutler, a push-along ball car from Grandma/pa Gray, and Legos from mom and Dad.

I gave Brian a day of fishing with a friend and gourmet breakfast/lunch, and a dinner/movie date later that night. I also planned to take care of his fix-it items so that he could really enjoy the day off. He got a gardening book from his parents and spending money from my parents. Overall the boys were spoiled and happy with their birthdays!