Leap Year and Skiing...

Maybe I'm dumb, but I had no idea why we had leap year...

Leap Years are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth's revolutions around the sun. It takes the Earth approximately 365.242199 days (a tropical year) to circle once around the Sun. If we didn't add a day on February 29 nearly every 4 years, we would lose almost six hours every year. After only 100 years, our calendar would be off by approximately 24 days!

I'm glad there are smart people in the world that figure things like this out for the rest of us. :)

Tonight (Weds), Luke and Kendall and myself are going on a little road trip!  We are going skiing tomorrow (Thursday) with my sister and her family (along with her homeschool group...i.e. group discount!!).

Luke is our only kid who has skied...2 years ago.  This year he is going to try out snowboarding and he is pumped about that!  Kendall is going to ski and I'm hoping it goes well! :)  We are heading home on Friday, after hopefully having some sledding time, but we'll see.  I'm not sure how much snow is there!

Pray for our safety if you think of it.  As I get older I fear injuries a little more!  I'm praying for a sweet time with my oldest two.  I can't remember the last time I shared time just with those two together.

Rollin' Like a Liar...

More on that title in a minute.

For now, I didn't want Boogie to feel left out of the cat pictures.  She also likes to find fun places to perch.  Her favorite of all are bags and boxes.  She is still an ornery cat...unless she chooses to be nice for a moment.

I forgot to mention something with my Disney trip posts.  The kids did the sweetest thing for us.  They had each been working on pictures/cards (in secret) before the trip to say thank you to us for taking them on the trip.  When we got there they presented us (first thing in our hotel room) with a presentation they had made on Luke's DS on the way there (with music and pictures...I am shocked at how much his dsi can do!), their cards, and they each pitched in some money to help pay for our trip.  They actually apologized to Bo and Noah at the time because they had sort of hijacked their piggy bank for B and N's portion.  They gave us like $25.  I thought that was cute and wanted it down here 'for the record.'

I was going thru older pictures and found these that I had taken of the valentines I made for the fam.  I got the idea from Family Fun magazine, and thought they were cute...

OK, the title.   Remember how I said the kids' favorite new song is Newsboys' "God's Not Dead."  They sing it all the time.  Bo and Noah got a chance to sing on K's singing machine the other night to that song.  The cuteness about did me in as they sang that song together with caps on backwards and lots of determination.  Anyway, I realized that instead of saying that God is "roaring like a lion" they were saying God is "rollin' like a liar!"

Oh man!!  As much trouble as we have with lying with those 2 and as many talks we have about how lying is wrong, it was quite ironic that they thought the song said God was a liar!  Of course they probably did not even think about what they were saying, but still.  It cracked me up and I totally corrected them! :)

I Spy a Junior...

Junior was enjoying the nice warm breezy day on Friday.

We found him napping in various places....

This is a first and a favorite so far.

Do you spy Junior in this picture in our garage?

Yep, there he is.  This cat is a nut. 

A pretty clever nut.

Weekend...

The kids had a half day on Friday, so they just came home and we enjoyed the sunshine.  Then all the sudden Saturday it got cold again!  The kids have been so into basketball lately and having games with the neighbors next door. 

I made 2 terrible Redbox choices this weekend for movies for Geoff and I to watch.  Dog Jack (G said the name alone should have told me it wasn't going to be good) (PLUS we realized it was on Netflix Watch Instantly! Ugh...wasted rental) and One Day.  Totally slow and not good.  I'll take a break from being the movie picker for awhile.

Saturday G decided to take the kids hiking.  He does this fairly often with the big kids, but this time he took Bo and Noah as well.  That left me with about 4 1/2 hours alone yesterday.  Whoa.  Anytime I am alone in this house I realize that it has been over 10 years since I have been alone in the house.  It's a weird feeling, but oh how I enjoyed it.  This is how it went....I ate lunch while watching 2 episodes of Gilmore Girls on Netflix, then I was cold so I took a long hot bath while reading Kisses From Katie (by the way, I am loving that book!)  (Also, I nearly fainted in the bathtub.  I was a little over zealous with the hot water and had shut the door and turned the little heater on.  My heart was beating in my head and I was sweating and wondering if I'd drown if I fainted).  I survived.  Then, as much as I didn't want to leave the quiet house I had to run a couple of errands and I went to Goodwill to drop stuff off and shop in peace, and to drop stuff off an consignment (purging!).  Then home to cook supper for the hungry hikers.  It was a rejuvenating afternoon.  And the hike went well too!  No criers!

Speaking of supper, I finally got my turkey carcass from Thanksgiving out of the freezer to make soup.  Last year I was addicted to it and oh man, it is so good this time too!  Here is the recipe.  Yum.

Church is exciting for Kendall these days.  She loves going, mainly because she is able this year to be part of the praise/dance team in the kids' church.  They practice once a month and lead each week and she is in her element.  I love it for her.  Luke and Will still prefer to sit in service with us...for some reason.  Bo and Noah love going to class and Bo came out Sunday with green fingernails.  He had had some fun with the markers.  No wonder he likes going to class.

I am realizing that I am gonna totally have to step it up in the grocery department.  We keep running out of food (well, snacky type food)!  Luke and Will are so hungry when they get home from school, and one little snack until supper isn't really cutting it anymore.  They at least like healthy snacks, but unfortunately healthy is more expensive and I refuse to buy boxed snacks for them to fill up on all the time.  They love yogurt and apples and I can't keep the fridge stocked with them long enough.  I hate grocery shopping by the way.  I need to start getting more than I normally do when I go.  BJ's here I come.  I wish we had one a little closer to our house and I would do ALL my shopping there, in bulk.


I had a good find on Saturday.  Will had lost his 2 favorite Star Wars books he had gotten for Christmas and we could not find them anywhere!  Finally on Saturday I discovered them under our small couch in the living room.  What?!  I know I had looked there.  It was a great relief to find something that was lost of Will's (we never found Beaver!).  Will ended up remembering he had hidden them under there from Bo and Noah!


We had a sour (ha) discovery this weekend!  Maybe Luke will kill me for mentioning this one day, but his pits stink!  My oldest baby is going to have to start wearing deoderant!  I squealed and jumped and hugged with delight.  He thought I was a bit nutso, but oh it's just so cute!  My little boy is growing up.

Here are some pictures Geoff took hiking...

Bo looks thrilled.

What a crew.
I'm thankful for Geoff who takes them on fun outdoor adventures...and actually enjoys it.

WEW...

**I actually wrote this post a few weeks ago and never put it on.  It still applies though. :)**



Will's initials describe life with him so very well.
It's funny because back when I ordered a backpack for Will, I texted G and asked him if "WEW" would be weird to have on his backpack.
He answered simply "it fits him."

How true.  Life with Will is one big "W(H)EW!"

He had a simple project to do for school and we tackled it last weekend.

It took literally aaaalll weekend to get it done because he couldn't focus for more than a few minutes at a time.  He does so well in school, but at home he is not the most disciplined student. 

During the drama of said project, Kendall said "Dad, you should hire a net nanny for Will!"

She was mixed up between 'net nanny' which is a program we have on the kids computer and also 'super nanny' on TV.

Ha! :)

Gotta love the little guy though.  I mean, really.  He's one special dude.  Praying God will use his uh, passion, shall we say?, to do big things one day.

Bo Goes to the Chiropractor...

Remember we found out that Bo has congenital scholiosis in his lower back? I finally took him to a chiro, who looked at his x-rays and examined him. She agrees with the ortho doc that there is nothing chiro can do to 'cure' his curve, but there are definitely ways to manage it and help it to not get worse or cause strain/pain on the spine above and below the curve. I was jealous of Bo when he was getting his treatment! He will go once every 4-6 weeks to help him out. I feel good about that. When he goes through growth spurts will be the hardest times and we'll be able to see how this is all going to affect him.

Kendall's Birthday Pics...

While I'm on a roll catching up on all things December, I finally took Kendall's 9 year old pictures.  Nothing professional, not intended to be.  These are the pictures I take on each of the kids' birthdays.  The boys wear one of G's shirt and tie and K wears one of my older dresses.  Each year I print one out in black and white and put it in a frame (each kid has one big frame that all their pics go in) and you can see how they have grown each year by how they fit in the clothes.  Anyway....

Kendall is a hard one to track down for pictures.  She is not one to enjoy changing clothes, number one, and then posing for pictures.  She hates when I tell her she is grown up or pretty.  :)

You can see her disdain in most of these pictures.  Example numero uno...

Ahh, now there's a pretty girl!

Oops, shouldn't have called her pretty.  This is what I get...

I have the shoulder straps tied up, but other than that this dress fits her length almost!  I wore this when G and I were dating.  :)

And a few special Kendall faces to leave you with...

My personal fave...

Now to pick out my favorite, change it to black and white, order it, and frame it! 
Should be done by mid July, ya think?

Game Tournament Winner!

We finally finished our game tournament that we started at the beginning of Christmas break. How sad is that?  We love playing games when we do it, but just don't put the effort in usually (hence the need for the annual game tourney).  We took a big break and finally finished up our last game Sunday night.

Will has held the trophy since last year....

We all played Cranium (kids version) as our last game, and after that Geoff tallied the scores and announced the winner(s).  There were several ties!  In fact, there was a tie for first place between Kendall and me....

I voted that we just share first place, but she wanted a real winner, so we played a face-off game of Guess Who.  Oh, the pressure!  It came down to the last guess and Kendall, poor thing, guessed wrong and that made me the winner.  I felt a little bad, but hey.  That's life.  Mama's gotta win sometimes right? :)



Trophy ceremony.  Handing it off....

A little overkill, I know.

We may have to revise our tournament a bit.  Maybe a summer tourney?  Surely we can get it done during summer break?!

The Kids' FAVORITE New Song...

God's not dead

He's surely alive

Livin' on the inside

Roarin' like a lion

They can't get enough!!



Twins...

I need to do a whole post about them because there is so much I'd like to update on. For now, we swabbed their mouths Wednesday night for the DNA test to find out if they are identical or not. I know it doesn't 'matter,' but I am so excited to find out! It's like I'm waiting for the ultrasound to tell me if I'm having a boy or girl! I think I am just excited because it will be one piece of info that I know to be true and can answer with confidence when people ask all the twin questions everywhere we go.  The results should be back in a week or so!

My Girls...

 I have one girl who is hungs (as Will would say) all the time.  She appears to have lost a bit of weight, so the cut down in food has helped.  That's not saying she likes it though.  She still spends a lot of her time staring at food.  You know, giving me subtle hints.

See those shoes up there?  I got all the boys new shoes the other day, and went out on a limb and bought those grey converse shoes for Luke instead of the regular Nike type shoes he normally wears.  When he first saw them he said "Mom!  Oh my goodness!  Those are classics!"

He was open to the idea after a pep talk from me about how cool they are.  He tried them on and he laughed and couldn't get over how long they looked on his feet (we buy shoes big so they'll fit a while, but plus his feet are getting long!).  He even made me video tape him so he could see what they looked like when he walked.  Ha!  My 10 year old cares!  :)

He ended up keeping them and loves them and says they made him run faster.

Now, back to hungry girl.  See the hamburger patties up there on the toaster?  She was waiting patiently for one to fall on the floor...

Another day.  Another hungs dog.  She fell asleep after she knocked the container over (a super annoying habit she has now).  I guess I need to take my sister's advice and hide the container and bowls when it's not eating time.

My other girl.  I love this one even more than the first, if you can believe that! :)

She gets the notion to sleep in curlers every so often, and I thought her hair looked so pretty in a ponytail the next day (this is actually after school!).  She did not want to pose for these but I made her. :)  I remember I used to love to do the same thing to my hair growing up and used to love my curly ponytail!

Saturday (Coming Home)...

Last Disney post!

It's always sad when vacation ends.  You look forward to it for so long, then you go go go during it, then it's over and you miss it.  Geoff and I were actually ready to get home (we all know these kinds of vacations are anything but a vacation for mom and dad), but it was still sad that it was all over.

We made so many fun memories though!

A friend had given Kendall a gift card for Disney for her birthday.  It was a perfect gift because Kendall does not spend her money and otherwise would not have bought anything for herself. 
She has eyed this Minnie light up spinner thing all 3 times we have been to MK and she finally bought one for herself. :)

 

We saved our last 'sit down meal' from the dining plan for breakfast the last day.  We went to Ohana's at the Polynesian Resort.  It was a fun way to end our trip.  We all got leis.

 

4 characters came to our table.  The kids are not all that into characters, but it made for fun pictures.

Noah and Bo were killin' me.  Noah was especially enthralled with his food this morning and would not even pay attention to the characters when they came around.  He was more interested in his food.  I had to make him put his food down and look at the characters!

Notice Noah and the grapes. Never mind that Mickey Mouse himself is at our table!

 Mickey Mouse waffles...

Luke is a huge breakfast food fan.  He was posing here, but he really was excited about this big platter of breakfast foods!  Will was too, but he fills up quickly.  Luke can put it away.

 

Little Miss wasn't acting like she felt very good, but everything was so crazy I didn't pay it much attention.  This face will speak volumes for what comes later...

Poor girl.

 

They liked this statue because he had naked butt cheeks in the back...



About 45 minutes into our 9ish hour drive home (Kendall was in the middle back seat, with Luke and Noah on each side), Luke announces in a panicked voice that Kendall feels like she is going to throw up.  I look back there and her face reveals that that was true, so I did the fastest thing I could think of and threw my blanket back there (yes, I take my own blanket on trips) and said "throw up in this!"

Well, some of it landed in the blanket, but SO much more landed in the seat, on the floor, all over her clothes, and on the seat in front of her.  It was awful.  She just kept going and going.  I guess all that free dining had built up over the week and she had a lot to throw up!  She was pitiful. 

Luke was gagging, nearly in tears, beside her.  He was not handling it well.  In hind site it is hilarious how much of a scene he made...when he was not even the one sick!

We stopped as soon as we could find a place and did all kinds of clean-up, dug clean laundry out of the suitcases, and lined the seats with plastic and blankets.  We went to a gas station to clean K up some and we armed ourselves with several empty big gulp cups (to use instead of my blanket!) and some Gatorade.

K moved to the front (back) seat so she could have some space.  She was exhausted and slept a lot.

Poor girl...that's no way to end a trip to Disney!



It seemed like a VERY long trip home.  Geoff and I were so ready to get there!

The lovely driver himself...



 

Kendall's sickness was an answer to prayer in a way.   I was pretty nervous before this trip that someone would get sick and it would mess up our trip.  I loaded the kids up with vitamins and at the same time prayed God would keep us healthy.  I even said "I don't care if they get sick on the way home, just please let them be healthy on the trip."  Well, that's what happened!  Although I felt bad for K (and our dirty van), I was so thankful it waited until all the fun of the trip was over.  And the timing could not have been more perfect.  It showed me (again) that God does care and is in control of the small details of our lives...the things important to us are also important to Him.  Worry is not something we need to do.  When will I learn that?

We had such a great time.  Lots of memories made.  The kids miss it and are asking when we get to go back.  Ha!  It will be quite a while, if ever (as our family of 7, to those same places at least).  I told Luke the next time he goes, it might be with his own family one day.  I asked him if he would take Granny with him! :)  He didn't really give me an answer.  :)