Christmas Eve 2010

This was a great Christmas! We took almost the whole month off from homeschooling and while things weren't exactly as idyllic as I had hoped for, we've had a fun Christmas. We especially love the things we get to do Christmas Eve.

Santa comes through our neighborhood riding on the back of a John Deere tractor!

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We add luminaries to our fun arches:



And this year we were invited to participate in the acting out of the nativity



Braden was Herod the King, Andrew was Nephi, Delainey was an angel, and Chase was one of the three kings!! Our hosts have wonderful costumes for the actors and it's a fun time!

What a great way to end the year!

Homeschool happenings

After months of computer issues and trying a bit of this and a bit of that unsuccessfully, a refinance of our home allowed us to use that "skipped" mortgage payment to get a new computer!! So with a new computer and a nifty little kodak sharing device that will hopefully allow me to upload pictures easily, we rejoin the photo portion of blogging!! Since I haven't posted any pictures of our homeschool adventures I thought I would share a quick overview...

Art with dad



Moon rocks at the Kennedy Space Center



Pyramids for Ancient Egypt



Recycled creations



Sorting the animal kingdom



This is definitely a new adventure and we're learning different things every day, but overall I think we're happy and will keep on keeping on!

Proud Mom

Andrew is playing JV basketball and has been getting some good playing time and playing well. Recently football season ended and 4 guys from the football team were added to the team. That always adds some awkward time while the team readjusts and often the football players take a few starting spots and take up playing time opportunities.

At the game on Monday, Andrew had a tough game. Basically just lost the mental game and was very frustrated. After the game he commented "it's too bad I'm going to miss the game on Friday." News to me. "Why are you going to miss the game on Friday?" "Temple Mom!" The youth have a temple trip on Friday. I had just assumed that he wasn't going because of the game since it is fairly common for mutual and things like that to be taken over by the basketball season. I related my surprise and told him what I had thought and he said, "Yeah, but mom, it's the temple."

Very proud of my young man making the best choice. Basketball is very important to Andrew so giving up playing time is a pretty big thing. I'm so glad he is choosing to place the Lord first.

Out of the mouth of babes...

So this afternoon we took Matt (who had stayed home from work sick and had slept most of the day) to see Despicable Me at our dollar theater. Afterwords we ducked into a pizza place to grab a quick bite before running home to run to swim practice. The server came by and said "oh, there are five of you-I missed one." Delainey then replied " We used to have six...." Can you tell that Andrew isn't home much?

School has begun-full time!

First day of school, deep breath, smell the new shoes, and freshly sharpened mechanical pencils...

The high schooler



The 6th grader (here that's still elementary school)



The 2nd grader



The shiny new kindergartener



And a "class" photo of our freshly minted homeschool



Let the learning begin!!

Matt's new distraction

Yaaayy for Craigslist! Matt found this canoe at a FABULOUS deal on Saturday! He rushed home and scooped up the gang that was at home for a trip up the canal!



(I picked this one because I'm just slightly off center!)

Happy Birthday to me!!

This is what I did on my birthday! (and no, this is NOT me, but my friend helping me-SOMEONE had to take the picture!)

A little girl...for Sarah

When we found out that Delainey was to be a girl, many, many, many people said something like..."Oh, you finally got your girl!" My first response (at least in my mind)"Did we want a girl?" I'd seen girls, I'd been around girls. I only have brothers and three sons. GIRL??? I thought "you know, I've seen those and I don't think I actually NEEEEED one of them..." But here you go, one's on the way.

Over the past five and half years there have been so many times where I just looked at Delainey and thought "WHAT ARE YOU????" Example from recent experience....(and NOT looking forward to the teenager version) One morning Chase came to the kitchen and said "do you like my otter?" and of course I said "Yes! I really like your otter." (stuffed animal) What happened between then and two minutes later I do NOT know, but the next thing I DO know is that Delainey is collapsed into a lump on the floor sobbing inconsolably because "Nob-bo-body l-l-l-iiikes m-m-y an-ni-malssss." This went on for somewhere around 20 minutes without any success at consolation. And people say I should WANT this??

Here are a few pictures to illustrate my point:

A typical "You don't like my animals" type mode



The "after 20 or more minutes of consolation" mode



While I will say that I do not love these moments, there are moments where having a little girl has had its beautiful moments. Like when I was rocking her to sleep when she was nine months old and I was quietly crying under the weight of life and she looked up at me with undeniably understanding eyes and wrapped her arms around my neck. She enjoys cooking and cleaning and her mom and will frequently give hugs and kisses at wonderfully random moments.

And most of all I have learned to really love her more since the death of one of her friends, named Sarah, who died very unexpectedly last fall. Sarah's mom reminds us to hug our daughters more often because she can't. It lends for a little more patience on my part when I think of Sarah.

Sarah would've been five on Friday so this post is for her. Her life was short but it has left an impression on me and reminds me to love the daughter I have more because Heavenly Father knew I "NEEDED" a daughter.

Let's go SWIMMING!!!

Today was Braden, Chase, and Delainey's first swim meet!! They did great and had fun! I'll try to post videos later, but I can't vouch for them since I spent too much time yelling for kids!!

Waiting for things to start:




Chase and Delainey lining up for their relay!



After the meet:



I think it was 95 degrees with 95% humidity at 7:30 AM and only got warmer, but they had a great time!

Happy Birthday to Chase!

Chase went for a bowling party for his birthday this year! We made bowling "shirts" for the kids (from Family Fun) and had a great time!



How did that get THERE?

A frightening harbinger...

Coming soon to a roadway near you-as for now, just a bit of practice backing out of the driveway...



The siblings duck and cover...

Father's Day

The breakfast feast...


The cake after dinner!

What we've been up to....

Fun activities in Ft.Meyers when we were not watching basketball games!!
The imaginarium:
Touch tank:

Hurricane Tunnel:

Being eaten by a T-Rex

Dad and the kids making an arch

Force of Nature

Only those who don't know Delainey laugh when I call her a force of nature. Take the swim coach. I approached him on Monday to see if he thought Delainey would be ready for swimming. He said that he had had five year olds swim laps around everyone (to which I pointed to Delainey) and had 7 year olds that wouldn't swim a lap.

Wednesday was her first try at swim team. We've been waiting for Chase to get a good head start before we unleashed the force of nature.

Warm ups-Delainey is chatting and doing her thing. After about 5 minutes the coach said "Wow-you are quite the person aren't you?" I laughed.

Then she gets in the water. Swims like a little fish. He's amazed. Then I said "you should see her backstroke!" I could feel the disbelief emminating from the coach. He humors me and has her flip over. She takes off and his jaw drops. You must know that Delainey has a MAD backstroke for one so young.

It was fun to watch the coach deal with my little "force of nature." Don't underestimate our Little Miss.

Awards and Musings....

Tonight I attended an awards ceremony for the Area 1 schools in the school district. Braden was one that was chosen to win and award and I was told that it was a very big deal....we got there right on time, which is late, only to be met at the door by a nervous assistant principal. Ok, so it WAS a big deal.

About 5-7 students from each school received various recognitions-academic, citizenship, athletic, volunteer, etc. Braden was "up" for recoginition in Odyssey of the Mind, with recognition for his honor roll status and other activities. It was pretty neat.

As I sat through the ceremony I had quite a few musings. Understandibly this was a ceremony to (in our best Will Smith, Men in Black voice) recognize "the best of the best of the best, sir, with honors!" But it led me to think of my parenting style, the achievements, or lack thereof, of my children, and their futures and what they are achieving.

I am not a driving parent, meaning that I don't monitor the fine details of my children's piano practices, homework, athletics, etc...I don't think that my children would respond well to that anyway. I try to let them feel the natural consequences of their choices.

Sometimes I wonder if my children have enough of an internal desire to be "the best of the best of the best, sir, with honors!" Not that I need them to be first in their class or truly "the best of the best." I just want them to have the desire to achieve the things they are capable of.

Lots to ponder, lots to hope, lots to pray about, and lots to hope for.

Why do we have toys???

Chase was upset that I wouldn't let him play the wii, so Delainey brought in the raft and they set up camp with their "computers" (made out of paper), a Far Side Gallery, and a few other miscellaneous things (which Delainey is FAMOUS, or infamous, for) and had a blast. I didn't get a picture of the other float they brough in a few minutes later...so they are sitting side by side with all their things..

Four years and finally a champion!!

Ya-hoo for Braden!! His Odyssey team (ok, our team, I am one of the coaches) took first place in the Regional Competition and is on to state!!

The whole team ready to go on:



The structures, a little crooked, but held 53.5 pounds which was 2nd in weight held, with 58.5 being the highest.



The pvc "pitchfork" and little "pegs" on the right are his device which they used to put their structures onto the tester plate.

They had a great time, did extremely well in spontaneous and was a great first time for 5 of the team members! On to state!!

A new beginning!!

Here's Chase in his first Odyssey of the Mind competition!



Their problem was to create a surprise party for something that happens in everyday life. They celebrated a blizzard, although they had it be a "Ba-lizard". Chase was the "Ba-lizard" and was wrapped in white with plastic lizards taped all over.

They demonstrated true first year form with the "deer in the headlights" couldn't hear any of the four words uttered, but they had a great time and will be much better next year! Go Chase!

Our week last week

I don't think they moved all day...Braden's fever got up to 104.3. We're greatful for zithromax!

Recital time

Here's a couple of cute pianists who had a recital on Saturday!



Both did really well-hopefully we'll get a youtube link so you can hear them if you want to!!

Birthday fun!

It was birthday time a week or so ago and we had one happy 5 year old!!

Cute little birthday girl!



C'mon dad, get off the computer so we can get going!



Nothing like a pile of presents to make someone happy!



We had a combined birthday party with another friend and had a great time. Here's a picture of the great cupcakes the other mom made!

Gotta love

Sitting watching the Olympics in a quiet house when suddenly you hear a boom and the windows in your house rattle ....after having a momentary freak out you remember...oh yeah-shuttle landing!!

I'm really going to miss that....

Valentine's hair

Thanks to my friend Amy Alexander who posted a link to this incredible mom who does the most AMAZING things with her daughter's hair, Delainey had two fun hairstyles this Valentine's Day!

Sunday's Do:



Her Valentine's Day party at school is this morning and this is what we were able to do:



If only she had as much hair as the daughter in the blog....

Sleepover

How do you get two four year olds to go to sleep at night???



Who needs a bed to sleep?

The lack of words....

Life is.....are there words? Busy just doesn't seem to cut it, exhausting sounds reasonable, and productive doesn't always make the cut. So, maybe some highlights...sans pictures because that just adds another element and complicates things!

Andrew just finished his first high school basketball season. Frustrating isn't nearly enough of a word to describe it. We learned that having good fundamentals doesn't fly too well with a football coach as a basketball coach. Not much playing time, but he truly made the most of it. He finally got good playing time the last two games, which were, naturally, away games we didn't go to. 12 pts, 10 rebounds the first game, 17 points 10 rebounds the second. He's really coming around as a pianist and is sounding so amazing-it's a bit unbelievable somtimes!

Braden is busy with his own basketball season, Odyssey of the Mind, swimming, scouts (he just became an 11 year old scout), and the beginnings of coming into his own as a pianist. Braden is soo creative and observant and even though he's hitting the beginning of his 11 year old adolescence, he's still fun to have around!

Chase could be an amazing swimmer if he would just use both arms to swim! He's so full of energy and spunk and is quite the ham. I think he needs some acting lessons!

Delainey-again there are NO words for this one. Force of nature, pain in the neck, diva, "give it to me NOW!!"....she does have her great moments and just tonight she had the giggle going to end all giggles-the whole family was laughing!

Home again, home again

After about 3000 miles, two weeks, one bout of stomach flu (which unfortunately we shared-sorry...) we made it back home! Our first 2 week family vacation was a hit! The kids were suprised by our trip to the Dells, jumped right back in with old friends, and cried when we left!

We got home about noon and by 5:00 (after a two hour mandatory down time) we were about 95% unpacked with the car cleaned out, vacuummed and washed. Not too bad..

We had a GREAT trip and it was so wonderful to see our friends in Michigan, enjoy a little snow, and all around have some relaxing family time. Maybe I'll post pictures later....(c'mon, I can't be a TOTAL overachiever...!)