June - Part Two

Two more super awesome things happened in June that I thought deserved their own post! Back in May some of my girlfriends challenged me to do The Sound to Narrows 12k race. And I agreed! Crazy, right? Well, I trained pretty steadily from May to June and we did it. We walked and jogged cuz baby, I ain't no runner - and we finished almost 8 miles in a little over 2 hours. It was awesome! I felt such a sense of pride and accomplishment. And it has just kept me motivated to keep going. I now seldom miss a day on my treadmill and I love feeling stronger and healthier. Thankfully, I did not bring my camera that day, but if you must see pics check out Brook, Clarissa, Heidi or Rachel's blog and I think they have them.

And the other thing that happened was the ECLIPSE premier!! It was so fun to get an awesome group of ladies together to see the midnight showing. We met at the theater at 9pm and visited and such until we got into our theater. Then, I forced them all to win their movie candy by answering trivia questions about the movie. We even ran into a group of girls that had seen New Moon with us the year before. It was so crazy that we were in the same theater again with them!! Must say, loved the movie - shocking, I know - and loved a super fun night out with my ladies!! Don't be jealous of Clarissa and I's matching tee's!!

June

June was a busier month. The kids were done with school so all the fun could start! Marcus turned 5!! And can I just say, what a difference a year makes. For those of you who don't know my sweet boy, he has had his challenges. Most noticeably his speech has been delayed and he is just not a "typical" boy in some ways. Not super sociable and sometimes just likes to be by himself and do his own thing. This past year in preschool has done wonders for him. His speech improved dramatically and his independence as well. I was so nervous for him at first, but he had no problems riding a bus to and from school and doing what his teachers asked. Leaps and bounds he has improved and I am ever so thankful to his two preschool teachers who have helped him so much in his start to school. He was even the best one in class at writing his name by the end of the year, which was awesome because when he started he didn't even recognize his own name!! Anyhoo, I couldn't be prouder of him and I've definitely come to realize something as a mother - all of my kids are SO different and no one can put them into a "box" or force them to be a supposed "norm". It's totally ok to be different, to think different and to embrace it!! Happy Birthday my sweet boy!!

May

Let's see - Todd turned 42 this month, but I can't remember what we did nor do I have any pics! Must've been a good year, right sweetie?! And that's all I can remember!! So, just enjoy this picture would ya'?!

April

Easter! Nothing too exciting with this one. Just pics of my ubercute kids. Oh, and after they did their Easter egg hunt, they spent the morning making up one for daddy and mommy to go on too. That Raquel is pretty creative!

We were also able to be grown ups again and moved out of my parents house for yes, the second time! Hey, whatcha gonna do? We are just so thankful that my parents are always so willing and able to help us out. We moved to the Grand Mound area which puts us central to Todd's work, family and friends and we are loving it. Here's a pic of our house that I am totally loving. Just enough space for this family!!

March

Ok, February's formatting got a little funky on me, but I think you can still follow my stories!! On to March and this one is a keeper. Normally, I love the fun projects Raquel does at school and I like helping her if she needs to get one done. Well, not this time!! It was the day before St. Patrick's Day and she came home from school and was freaking out that she needed to make a "Leprachaun Trap". Aahh, what?! I asked her if it was for school and she said no, but that all her friends were making one and she just HAD to!! And she needed a shoebox and chocolate and money and all other things that would indeed catch her a leprachaun!! Well, I didn't have the needed supplies nor was I going to run out and buy them for something that wasn't even an assignment!! Well, needless to say - I ruined her life!! How could I NOT help her build a trap!! What kind of a mother was I?! So, in not one of my better mother moments I simply informed her that there were no such things as leprachauns, it was all made up, and therefore why, oh why, would we need to build a trap!!

I know, I know. I know what you're all thinking - I might as well just have let the cat out of the bag about the Easter bunny and the Tooth Fairy too, right?! I said it wasn't one of my better moments. And to make it worse, my sweet girl's eyes filled up with tears and she ran to her room and slammed the door. Just lovely. Never fear though, all wonderful Grandma was here to save the day!! My mom swooped in and not only helped her build a trap, but the next day on St. Patrick's Day she hid stuff all over the house for the kids and said it was from the leprachauns. Thanks Mom!! So before I went to bed that night Raquel and Grandma had put her trap out on the table and this note was attached to it. I already said she's a bit dramatic, right?


It reads - "If you are real like my friends say please will you give me a dollar or two or at least something. My mom says you are not true but if you are please it would mean so much to me. If you did I won't catch you. I am too sad to do that. P.S. I believe in you no matter what anyone says."

So, I caved after reading that and Todd and I staged a trapping of the leprachaun which involved leaving money for her from the leprachaun. Whatever. I'd like to meet the teacher who came up with the idea of a leprachaun trap, cuz I am sure it came from a teacher's wicked, wicked mind - and I'd like to punch them in the face. Yup, in the face!! I mean, don't we have enough fake people we have to be throughout the year?! Now, apparently we need to add leprachaun to the list!!

February

Raquel was in her first play at school! It was Rumplestilskin and she was one of the villagers with a speaking part!! She was so excited and practiced so hard and did SO good at her performance. Never a prouder mama was there!! I forsee this as the first of many since if you know my Raquel you know she has a flair for the dramatics!! And the Oscar goes to . . . .

I also just have to share this awesome Family Home Evening lesson we did this month. My husband is going to kill me for putting these out into the world, but it was such a great lesson and he did such a good job! We had decided to do chore charts and have a lesson on helping mom and dad around the house and being responsible for cleaning up our own things, etc. Well, I found this hilarious poem on one of my favorite websites - sugardoodle.net - and I somehow convinced my sweet husband to dress up like an old woman and come into the room as I was reading the poem to my kids. You know, so they would always remember the lesson we had on chores with the "old lady". It went over pretty well except for Marcus couldn't stop laughing and Raigan didn't recognize her daddy and started to cry and wouldn't go anywhere near him!! Aahh, these teaching moments we can treasure for all of our lives, right?!? Here's a link to the story and Todd will forgive me eventually for his dress up pictures!!

http://www.sugardoodle.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4493%3Awhen-im-an-old-lady&catid=2135&Itemid=200001

January

So, here we go - catching up on the last seven months or so. These are going to be short and sweet! In January we celebrated Raigan turning 2! I love all my kids, but I gotta tell ya' - this one takes after her mother the most and I love it! So, sassy and silly and full of a whole lotta somethin'!!

Hello Again/Apology

Hello again blogging world! I have been neglecting my blog something fierce and boy have I been hearing about it! Never fear! I have returned! Before I get on to all the fun stuff my family has been doing this year I must take care of something else first. If you followed my blog last year you probably read an incredibly cruel post I wrote directed to members of my family. I owe an apology to my entire family, most especially to my brother Kirk and my sister-in-law Laurie. It was very wrong of me to attack them verbally in so public a forum. We have since met, worked through many of our issues that had been lingering between us for years and forgiven one another. I must admit, I was pretty turned off from blogging because I had turned my blog into something ugly and mean. And it was all my own doing. So now, it is time to forgive and forget and get back to what blogging is really all about - bragging about what our kids are doing, right?!? So now I will attempt to catch up on what we have been doing this year so far. I think we will go with the short version since I haven't posted anything since January!!

The Kids

Found these two on the couch one morning before Christmas. They were both totally asleep. So cute!!

Marcus - All Tied Up

During the Christmas break my kids all had "Quiet Time" just so mommy wouldn't go crazy. You can all relate I'm sure. Apparently one quiet time Raquel and Marcus weren't exactly laying in bed reading books like they were supposed to be. Raquel had to get up to be somewhere that day and Marcus had already fallen asleep. So, I didn't go in and check on him for awhile. Once I did I found him tied up to his sister's scarf that was looped through the top bunk while he was fast asleep on the bottom bunk. I guess they had been playing and he was the bad guy and his sister just forgot to untie him when she had to leave. Poor guy. How he'll ever make it with two sisters!! And of course, being the good mom that I am, I had to take a picture before I untied the poor guy!!

Candy Trains

We used to make these when we were kids and my sister said we absolutely had to make these candy trains at Christmas this year. I can't remember whose was whose, but they all turned out pretty cute. Can we all say sugar overload?

Christmas 2009

Hello family and friends! I am guilty of blog neglect yet again. I can't believe I only posted twice in November and in December! Yikes! I will blame it on Facebook again and a little tv show called Criminal Minds. My mom is a huge fan of the show and I gave her the first season on dvd for Christmas. There was nothing on tv to watch, so I thought I would watch Criminal Minds to see if I liked it and I was hooked. Zipped through the first season and then borrowed the next three from my girlfriend Vonda. I have been ignoring everything, including my family, because I am so hooked on this show!! I just finished a few days ago and now I'm dying for season five to come out on dvd - not until this fall most likely! Aahh! And I have a tv crush. It's okay, my husband knows about it. Dr. Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds and if you've seen the show, you know. He's all dorky smartness rolled into one yummy nerd and I'm crushing on him big time right now. Anyhoo, that is the reason for my long break between posts!!

We had a great holiday. My sister and Nicholas came up from Utah to celebrate the holidays with us. We had a good time fighting and playing games and fighting and going to the movies and fighting. :) I was kinda bummed that I didn't get to decorate with all my Christmas stuff this year because it's still all packed in Spokane. Oh well, next year I'll probably get it out at the beginning of November because I didn't get to this year!!

Santa & The Kids @ Ward Christmas Party

Christmas Morning

Now, I have to explain the next few pics. And yes, Nicholas - I AM putting them on the blog!! Every year since I can remember I ask Nicholas over and over again what he wants for Christmas and he can never give me an answer. I have thus threatened every year that I will buy him pink girl underwear if he doesn't give me at least one idea. Well, this year was no different so I decided to finally follow through on my threat! Yes, I did!! So, I bought him some pretty pink underwear with gift cards taped into the crotch. What? Did you think I would give him only undewear? There was a present, he just had to look for it!! It was ha-la-rious! I don't know why I waited so long to do it. I bet next year he'll give me some ideas, won't he?!?