"Reality"... everyone has their own. I'm trying to shine some light on the real, not the ideal. Real is not neat and pretty. Real is messy, and crazy, but can be funny and wonderful too. This is our reality what is yours?
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Conference Weekend
Just a funny little bit about Vivi. We were learning about the prophet and apostles yesterday for family home evening since General Conference for our church is coming up. I had a big picture of all of the apostles together so the kids could see them and try to remember their names. I asked each kid who was who ending with Vivi. I kinda thought she wouldn't say anything, but she surprised me by pointing first to President Monson and saying "that's an old guy" and moving on to the rest of the men "that's an old guy.... that's an old guy... that's an old guy" and so on for all of them. Seriously I was laughing so hard because she is right all old guys. Anyway, we will be listening to these "old guys" this weekend! Can't wait!
Happy St. Paddy's Day!
For St. Patrick's Day we went downtown for the St Paddy's parade! I never knew that there was one, but because of Claire's new hobby of all things Irish we got to go and see her in the parade while she danced with her school The Scariff Hardiman School of Irish Dance. It was crazy but fun. Will said it was the best parade he's been to. He did get a lot of candy so he might be biased that way! Here is Claire in the parade.
Irish Dancing
Lately we've been introduced to the art of Irish Dancing. Claire began taking classes back in October. When she started I thought it looked fun and like a good experience. Claire thought the girls were beautiful and the dresses, oh yes the dresses, she just had to have one! Well, little did we know that those "dresses" are a fortune (hundreds of dollars) and while yes she has fun in the classes she has to put in A LOT of work. Those Irish dancers are strong people both mentally and physically. Anyway luckily we have some time to save for that expensive dress. They don't wear those until they are past the Beginner stage. Right now much to the chagrin of Claire she gets to wear a plain school like uniform (one day Claire, one day you will have you super fancy dress that is more money than my wedding dress cost). All in all I do think this is a good experience for her. We are all learning how kinda crazy Irish Dancing is and have I mentioned competitive? Wow, it is and then some. Anyway, this last February she had her first competition at a feis (pronounced fesh) we are learning a new language too as we go along. Here are some pictures of her at the feis. She danced 2 dances and got 2 bronze medals! Good job Claire!
Martin Luther King Day
The kids had the day off and so I decided to sleep in a bit while they all watched TV. About a half and hour later I woke up to 3 kids coming into my bedroom with breakfast in bed for ME!!! Shawn did have to work, so this was done all by themselves! They were so pleased that they did this! What a lucky mom I am to have such cute and thoughtful munchkins! Notice the Dr Pepper. They know me too well.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Over A Year... but I'm back
I can't believe I haven't posted anything for over a year. If my kids ever look at this in the future they will wonder what happened to 2011. So, I think I'll do a little recap montage of good old 2011. Here goes. (This is by no means conclusive- these are just the highlights.... A.K.A the only things I can remember).
January 2011: Happy New Year to us. Shawn started a new job back at The Boeing Company! Yea for him, and a boo whoo for us. He was traveling a lot. For the first part of 2011 he pretty much just came home on the weekends. I got a little tiny taste of what it would be like to be a single mom... and it did not taste good. I was going craaaaazy.
February: Happy heart day! Shawn still traveled a lot. He loves working back at Boeing, and even with all of the travel the benefits are so much better. We hung in there and saw a light at the end of the tunnel. This is part one of why I stopped blogging though. I was way too busy and tired at the end of the day.
March: Disney Cruise time and Disney World!!! We had the best time! My mother in law Cindy took the extended Family on a Disney Cruise! Before the Cruise we went to all of the Disney Parks in Florida! It was the trip of a life time! We highly recommend a Disney Cruise- fantastic!!! Here are just a couple of the pics.
April: Hmm, April I am having a hard time remembering you??? Let me look at my computer photo memory... ok not much there for April. I guess we had Easter. I believe Shawn stopped traveling every week and only traveled every other week starting this month. I'm sure there was something great that happened that I didn't document and now I will never remember again... ha ha. I don't think so. Anyway, moving on.
Oh my gosh, I forgot, but just barely remembered right now- seriously. We added a new member to our family. How could I forget that? Seriously? See it's good I am going to keep this blog up and running now. It's my back up memory. So, yes we added a member to our seemingly ever increasing family. His name is Bosley and he is two years old. He is so sweet and cuddly, he smells a little and drools a lot, but we love him. Here is a picture of him (Bosley on the left and Lilly on the right).
Oh and Claire got braces in April. Her teeth are looking so much better now. Extra teeth are not usually a good thing unless you are a shark. We were glad to get rid of her extra teeth.
May: Will turned 5 years old! He wanted to have a pirate party so that's just what we did. When his friends arrived we had them start out decorating their own pirate boat picture with pirate stickers. This kept them entertained while everyone arrived. Then it was outside to walk the plank. Each boy had to walk the plank in order to become a real pirate. We have a wood pirate boat sandbox in the backyard, so we attached a board to the side and they all pretended to by walking off into the ocean. After they all did that they got their pirate gear (bandana, eye patch, and skull ring). Here's a picture of the crazy pirates.
We played pin the parrot on the pirates shoulder.. and did some other games that I seem to be forgetting. We had cute cupcakes that sat onto of a pirate boat and then Will opened presents! Will had a great time! Here's a picture of the birthday boy:
Also in May, Shawn and I had our 11th anniversary, and seriously again I can't remember what we did. Honey do you remember? No trips or anything. I think it was just low key. This year 2012 is gonna be big though I'm telling ya!!! Anyway, last year was meh... ya gotta throw a few of those in everyonce in awhile.
Also in May I was called got serve in our church as the Primary President. So, I am over about 100 kids and all of the teachers, and other primary people that go along with that calling. Not only that, but our ward split at the same time. So, I got to have this huge responsibility while trying to completely reorganize the whole auxiliary. It was a little stressful to say the least and that is part two of why I haven't blogged for a year. I figured my kids would rather see me face to face for the short amounts of time I'm not going crazy than to see my back as I'm typing on my blog. I had to give something up at the time and I chose this. Anyway, I'm still Primary President (for almost a year now) and I'm loving it. I have great counselors and Shawn is very supportive of all of the things I have to do that take me away sometimes. It is a juggling act sometimes as he still travels too. I guess we weren't busy enough before.
Also in May Will finished Preschool, and Claire got an award at school for going above and beyond. Here is a picture of her getting her award with Fireball the dragon (school mascot) and the principal.
June: Will finished soccer here is my handsome little man:
Claire finished 2nd grade! The weather started getting warmer. We went to a drive in theater. The kids thought it was the best to camp out in the back of the car!
Claire started taking horseback riding lessons. Here she is at the stable.
And here she is cleaning the stable (it must be the mom in me, but I love this picture. I love that she is forced to clean up the horse poo when at riding lessons) Yes, teach them some responsibility and put horseback riding into perspective thank you.
We also went on amazing bike rides all summer. Here is a picture of one ride. I love where we live!!!
Also the TV show Extreme Makeover came to our neighborhood to build a new home for a deserving family! It was pretty exciting to see some of the stars of the show. They were asking for volunteers so Shawn volunteered and helped build parts of the home. Here he is after a long nights work in his Extreme Makeover t-shirt!
At the very end of the month it was Claire's big 8th birthday! She got her ears pierced (she was nervous, but did a good job and now can't wait until she can wear dangly earrings). Shawn and I took her out to eat with just the three of us. She got to choose whatever restaurant she wanted. She chose The Mayan. Here are some pictures of that:
July: We took Claire and Will to Lagoon while my mom watched Vivi. We had a really really great time! Here are some pictures of that fun day!
One of the best days in July was when Claire got baptized! Here is a picture of her on that day!
At the end of July we were able to take a trip up to Seattle with Shawn to see our old stomping ground! It was so great to be back and see old friends and places that I've missed. Will says he wants to move back there.
August: The first part of August was Vivi's 2nd birthday party. I can't believe she's not a baby anymore. She tells me all of the time "Vivi's not a baby. Vivi's big" They grow so fast. We had her party at Chuck E Cheese. I think she had fun, but it was all a little overwhelming for her too. In the end she loved all of the presents, just not all of the attention. Here's a picture of her birthday:
The end of August, Claire started 3rd Grade with Mrs. Stott. Here is her first day of school photo:
And Will started Kindergarten with Mrs. Rowberry. I can't believe he is in Elementary! He loves it though. Here is his first day photo (Vivi decided she had to be in the photo too, and Will be the ever patient guy he is didn't mind).
September: Not too much happened in this month that I can remember, except that Claire got a concussion at school, and we had to take her to the emergency room She was playing with her friends at recess near some boys throwing a football. One of the boys jumped up to catch it and when he came back down he landed right on top of Claire. Man it was scary for a little bit. I guess it happened right at the end of school so I came to get them that day and found her walking home alone without Will. She kept saying the same things over and over and couldn't remember the day. She kept saying she thought she hit her head. I finally tracked down the teacher and kids to tell me what the heck happened to my daughter and why I wasn't called. It turns out it was a big confusion at the end of the day and they thought she was fine. However she wasn't. She kept dry heaving and rambling. I called her pediatrician and they said to take her into the emergency room to do a CT scan. I ran her over there just to get the run around and finally saw a doctor 2 hours later. By the time we finally saw the doctor she was doing much better. She wasn't nauseous anymore and could talk coherently. The doctor said if the brain starts to heal within the first couple of hours it's a good sign, if not then they do a CT scan. So, we were able to avoid the CT scan, and everything else checked out for her. She had to skip recess for a whole week because if she got hit again it would be much more serious. To this day she still can't remember much of that day. She doesn't even remember going to the hospital. Scary that half of a day can just be wiped away with a knock on the head, and scary that the school never called me. I'll get on my soapbox about that if you want me too, but this blog isn't long enough to vent my frustration on that part. Anyway, luckily she is fine and healthy now.
October: Happy Halloween! My kids dressed up as Captain America (Will) a cute Strawberry (Vivi) and Daphne from Scooby Doo (Claire). Shawn and I were Waldo and Wenda from "Where's Waldo"! Here is a picture:
Also this month Will won an award at school for being a great student! He got to go to a breakfast at school with Shawn!
Also Claire finished her first year of horseback riding. Here she is riding tall!
Claire also started taking Irish Dance classes! She really like it.
November: It snowed finally!
We had Thanksgiving and our friend/old babysitter Heather from WA came to have Thanksgiving with us! We were so glad she chose us to hang out with!
December: We had Will and Claire take ski lessons up at Brighton! Shawn and I got to go on our own little ski date while they were learning, and then meet up at the end to ski together! It was a blast, and they both loved learning! I'm so glad we did this!
And of course Christmas!!!
Ok, I caught up for 2011. It is way too late to continue, so I'll have to do the start of 2012 another day!
January 2011: Happy New Year to us. Shawn started a new job back at The Boeing Company! Yea for him, and a boo whoo for us. He was traveling a lot. For the first part of 2011 he pretty much just came home on the weekends. I got a little tiny taste of what it would be like to be a single mom... and it did not taste good. I was going craaaaazy.
February: Happy heart day! Shawn still traveled a lot. He loves working back at Boeing, and even with all of the travel the benefits are so much better. We hung in there and saw a light at the end of the tunnel. This is part one of why I stopped blogging though. I was way too busy and tired at the end of the day.
March: Disney Cruise time and Disney World!!! We had the best time! My mother in law Cindy took the extended Family on a Disney Cruise! Before the Cruise we went to all of the Disney Parks in Florida! It was the trip of a life time! We highly recommend a Disney Cruise- fantastic!!! Here are just a couple of the pics.
April: Hmm, April I am having a hard time remembering you??? Let me look at my computer photo memory... ok not much there for April. I guess we had Easter. I believe Shawn stopped traveling every week and only traveled every other week starting this month. I'm sure there was something great that happened that I didn't document and now I will never remember again... ha ha. I don't think so. Anyway, moving on.
Oh my gosh, I forgot, but just barely remembered right now- seriously. We added a new member to our family. How could I forget that? Seriously? See it's good I am going to keep this blog up and running now. It's my back up memory. So, yes we added a member to our seemingly ever increasing family. His name is Bosley and he is two years old. He is so sweet and cuddly, he smells a little and drools a lot, but we love him. Here is a picture of him (Bosley on the left and Lilly on the right).
Oh and Claire got braces in April. Her teeth are looking so much better now. Extra teeth are not usually a good thing unless you are a shark. We were glad to get rid of her extra teeth.
May: Will turned 5 years old! He wanted to have a pirate party so that's just what we did. When his friends arrived we had them start out decorating their own pirate boat picture with pirate stickers. This kept them entertained while everyone arrived. Then it was outside to walk the plank. Each boy had to walk the plank in order to become a real pirate. We have a wood pirate boat sandbox in the backyard, so we attached a board to the side and they all pretended to by walking off into the ocean. After they all did that they got their pirate gear (bandana, eye patch, and skull ring). Here's a picture of the crazy pirates.
We played pin the parrot on the pirates shoulder.. and did some other games that I seem to be forgetting. We had cute cupcakes that sat onto of a pirate boat and then Will opened presents! Will had a great time! Here's a picture of the birthday boy:
Also in May, Shawn and I had our 11th anniversary, and seriously again I can't remember what we did. Honey do you remember? No trips or anything. I think it was just low key. This year 2012 is gonna be big though I'm telling ya!!! Anyway, last year was meh... ya gotta throw a few of those in everyonce in awhile.
Also in May I was called got serve in our church as the Primary President. So, I am over about 100 kids and all of the teachers, and other primary people that go along with that calling. Not only that, but our ward split at the same time. So, I got to have this huge responsibility while trying to completely reorganize the whole auxiliary. It was a little stressful to say the least and that is part two of why I haven't blogged for a year. I figured my kids would rather see me face to face for the short amounts of time I'm not going crazy than to see my back as I'm typing on my blog. I had to give something up at the time and I chose this. Anyway, I'm still Primary President (for almost a year now) and I'm loving it. I have great counselors and Shawn is very supportive of all of the things I have to do that take me away sometimes. It is a juggling act sometimes as he still travels too. I guess we weren't busy enough before.
Also in May Will finished Preschool, and Claire got an award at school for going above and beyond. Here is a picture of her getting her award with Fireball the dragon (school mascot) and the principal.
June: Will finished soccer here is my handsome little man:
Claire finished 2nd grade! The weather started getting warmer. We went to a drive in theater. The kids thought it was the best to camp out in the back of the car!
Claire started taking horseback riding lessons. Here she is at the stable.
And here she is cleaning the stable (it must be the mom in me, but I love this picture. I love that she is forced to clean up the horse poo when at riding lessons) Yes, teach them some responsibility and put horseback riding into perspective thank you.
We also went on amazing bike rides all summer. Here is a picture of one ride. I love where we live!!!
Also the TV show Extreme Makeover came to our neighborhood to build a new home for a deserving family! It was pretty exciting to see some of the stars of the show. They were asking for volunteers so Shawn volunteered and helped build parts of the home. Here he is after a long nights work in his Extreme Makeover t-shirt!
At the very end of the month it was Claire's big 8th birthday! She got her ears pierced (she was nervous, but did a good job and now can't wait until she can wear dangly earrings). Shawn and I took her out to eat with just the three of us. She got to choose whatever restaurant she wanted. She chose The Mayan. Here are some pictures of that:
July: We took Claire and Will to Lagoon while my mom watched Vivi. We had a really really great time! Here are some pictures of that fun day!
One of the best days in July was when Claire got baptized! Here is a picture of her on that day!
At the end of July we were able to take a trip up to Seattle with Shawn to see our old stomping ground! It was so great to be back and see old friends and places that I've missed. Will says he wants to move back there.
August: The first part of August was Vivi's 2nd birthday party. I can't believe she's not a baby anymore. She tells me all of the time "Vivi's not a baby. Vivi's big" They grow so fast. We had her party at Chuck E Cheese. I think she had fun, but it was all a little overwhelming for her too. In the end she loved all of the presents, just not all of the attention. Here's a picture of her birthday:
The end of August, Claire started 3rd Grade with Mrs. Stott. Here is her first day of school photo:
And Will started Kindergarten with Mrs. Rowberry. I can't believe he is in Elementary! He loves it though. Here is his first day photo (Vivi decided she had to be in the photo too, and Will be the ever patient guy he is didn't mind).
September: Not too much happened in this month that I can remember, except that Claire got a concussion at school, and we had to take her to the emergency room She was playing with her friends at recess near some boys throwing a football. One of the boys jumped up to catch it and when he came back down he landed right on top of Claire. Man it was scary for a little bit. I guess it happened right at the end of school so I came to get them that day and found her walking home alone without Will. She kept saying the same things over and over and couldn't remember the day. She kept saying she thought she hit her head. I finally tracked down the teacher and kids to tell me what the heck happened to my daughter and why I wasn't called. It turns out it was a big confusion at the end of the day and they thought she was fine. However she wasn't. She kept dry heaving and rambling. I called her pediatrician and they said to take her into the emergency room to do a CT scan. I ran her over there just to get the run around and finally saw a doctor 2 hours later. By the time we finally saw the doctor she was doing much better. She wasn't nauseous anymore and could talk coherently. The doctor said if the brain starts to heal within the first couple of hours it's a good sign, if not then they do a CT scan. So, we were able to avoid the CT scan, and everything else checked out for her. She had to skip recess for a whole week because if she got hit again it would be much more serious. To this day she still can't remember much of that day. She doesn't even remember going to the hospital. Scary that half of a day can just be wiped away with a knock on the head, and scary that the school never called me. I'll get on my soapbox about that if you want me too, but this blog isn't long enough to vent my frustration on that part. Anyway, luckily she is fine and healthy now.
October: Happy Halloween! My kids dressed up as Captain America (Will) a cute Strawberry (Vivi) and Daphne from Scooby Doo (Claire). Shawn and I were Waldo and Wenda from "Where's Waldo"! Here is a picture:
Also this month Will won an award at school for being a great student! He got to go to a breakfast at school with Shawn!
Also Claire finished her first year of horseback riding. Here she is riding tall!
Claire also started taking Irish Dance classes! She really like it.
November: It snowed finally!
We had Thanksgiving and our friend/old babysitter Heather from WA came to have Thanksgiving with us! We were so glad she chose us to hang out with!
December: We had Will and Claire take ski lessons up at Brighton! Shawn and I got to go on our own little ski date while they were learning, and then meet up at the end to ski together! It was a blast, and they both loved learning! I'm so glad we did this!
And of course Christmas!!!
Ok, I caught up for 2011. It is way too late to continue, so I'll have to do the start of 2012 another day!
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