First School Year in NOVA done.

Well, another school year has ended.  It went by pretty quick to me, but every year does.  On the last day, I surprised the kids with a treat (peanut butter, chocolate bars) and got them each a small gift (pool toys, flip flops).  We also made out summer schedule and our summer bucket list to get them excited for summer and to make sure we fit in some fun activities besides just sitting around.

Then yesterday we got their report cards…it was another outstanding one for both of them.  Colin got straight A's and Evan got all O's (outstanding).  Both are reading above grade level too.  And Colin got his first SOL scores back. He scored a perfect score (600) on BOTH reading and social studies!!!  We are so proud of him. He also got a 547on Math, another excellent score (above 500 is considered pass advanced, you need above 400 to pass).

Other than that, we have been to the pool, signed up for summer reading program at the library and have been to a bunch of doctors appointments for me.  Today I have a CT scan and we are really hoping this helps us come up with a plan for my kidney pain.

Logan has also been doing swimming lessons this week.  I would love for him to be swimming without a device by the end of summer.  I absolutely love the swimming school we found, so I am real happy about that.  He is making good progress already with floating front and back.  If only lessons weren't so expensive!  I really want Colin and Evan to take them too, so they can get stronger (they can swim but need lessons on stroke form).  But, like everything with raising 4 kids in NOVA, especially on 1 salary, we have to consider the cost…

Oh, the boys are also doing VBS (vacation bible school) and church this week, aka church camp.  They have had a lot of fun doing crafts, learning songs, do physical activities, etc.  Today is the last day and we have mass in the morning and then an end of week celebration after camp this afternoon.  It is has been a great week.

End of Year Festivities

Can't believe we are already at the end of this school year!

Wednesday, Logan had his last day of preschool.  They did a short and sweet ceremony where the kids sang a couple songs and then they got a pin for their cap.  I was surprised to see Logan actually sing and do the movements since he is so shy and serious at school.  This has been a great year.  I love the preschool and wish I could send Leah there next year, but their 2 year old program isn't long enough for me to work.  Luckily, Logan will be going there for Kindergarten Enrichment next year.

Thursday, after school, I took the kids to the pool for the first time this season.  They had a blast.  Leah really loved it too and I wasn't prepared with floaties for her so I need to make a trip to Target soon.  She is pretty adventurous in the pool. We only had a little over an hour to swim and then had to rush home for showers/baths so I could get Colin to a birthday party.

Friday, my Dad babysat a couple hours so I could help at Colin's class party.  I had a lot of fun watching the kids and helping them play games and serve food/ice cream.  I always love watching my kids interact with their classmates.  Colin's teacher told me Colin has had a great year.  He was the only one to get his "black belt in recorder", whatever that means and he talked about how determined Colin is.  He also whispered that Colin got 2 perfect scores on his SOL tests….  We don't get the official results till school gets out, but I am so proud of him!!!

Tonight we have the boys end of school Carnival at their school and then a busy weekend of a birthday party, wedding reception, and a playdate.  And then Monday is Evan's class party so lots to look forward to!

3rd Quarter Grades.

3rd quarter report cards have been just as good as the first 2 quarters, even better actually.  Both boys got great comments from their teachers too!  Colin got straight A's and Evan got all Outstanding's…I couldn't ask for a better first year in this school as far as grades and behavior have been, so I am really grateful and proud of that.

Evan also got his scores for the ability test he took (the CogAt's).  He did fantastic.  We knew he was bright, but he has a lot of anxiety with test taking.  I think he went to the nurse 3x that week for headaches and stomachaches, so I wasn't sure what to expect for scores on the test.  I knew he would get in the 80's or 90's, but didn't expect him to do as well as he did in all 3 areas.  Seems like most kids have one weaker area…  Anyway, he got a 95% for both the verbal and non verbal and a 99% on the quantitative section.  His cumulative percentage was a 99% (this is again because it is unlikely to do that well on all 3 sections)!!!

In other news…We have begun spring sports season.  Colin has had 2 soccer games thus far and is doing great.  His team won both games which is always nice, but more importantly, I love seeing the confidence he has playing soccer.  While he loved football too, he was much more intimidated by it, I think, and wasn't as aggressive as we are used to seeing him.  Now, he is back in his element, and it is fun to watch.

Evan is doing baseball.  He is doing rookie level and is on the Lugnuts.  He seems to be having fun and will have his first game tomorrow.

Logan is trying Tball out for the first time.  His team is the Thunder.  He has his first game on Thursday, but will miss it due to a performance at school.  So instead, we won't get to see him play his first game until Saturday.

This past weekend the little league had a really fun parade and then had food and some entertainment after an opening day ceremony.  We got to see both Evan and Logan walk with their teams.  Logan's team won the prize for best team banner for his division.

Spring is turning out to be as crazy as we assumed it would be with all 3 in sports.  May especially is going to be very busy.  But, it is a lot of fun too!

Braces for Evan!

So, Dennis gets back today from Europe.  This past week has gone pretty smoothly.  Tuesday night was another game for Evan.  Grandma (Dennis' Mom) was able to help out by going to Evan's game so I could leave and pick up Colin from soccer practice towards the end.  I was also in charge of snacks so I wanted someone there in case the game ended early.  They won a hard game that was tied up at the end so that is always fun too.

Wednesday I took Logan and Leah to a free magic show in the morning and then we went to Logan's school for muffins with Mom.  It is always fun to go to the kids classrooms and see them in their element.  Logan's teachers and his school in general are one of my favorite things about Ashburn.  We really lucked out finding such a fantastic preschool and I am happy we decided to keep him there for Kindergarten Enrichment next year (Kinder is only 1/2 day here so after morning Kinder, he will get picked up and brought to his preschool for lunch/recess and additional learning until I pick him up at 2:30).    Anyway, I got to watch his class sing a couple songs (Logan was pretty shy doing this) and then we did a few crafts together and had a small snack.

Friday, we had muffins with Mom at the big boys school.  I thought I was going to have to miss it because Dennis was out of town and couldn't stay home with the little ones, but I emailed the person in charge just to ask if siblings can come and she said sure, so I went ahead and went with all 4.  We had a quick muffin together before the boys had to start their school day.

Then that evening they wanted to go to Parents Night Out.

Mother's Day 2015

Dennis and his Dad left for Europe on Friday.  His Dad took him on an all expenses paid trip to England, Paris and Nice/Monocco for 10-11 days or so.  In the meantime, I am holding down the fort here in VA.

Saturday, was a busy day.  All 3 boys ended up having team pictures this weekend.  So, we left the house at 7:45 am and got home at 4:30pm.  We had each of their pictures, Colin's game and Evan's game.  My Dad came to Evan's game so that I could leave early to get Logan to his pictures.  Then I treated him to lunch out at Red Robin.  Other than that I was on my own with all the kiddos.  It went fairly smoothly considering how long we were out and Leah not getting any rest time.  Both boys won their games and were excited about that.  Luckily, Logan didn't have a game this Saturday!  That night we ordered pizza and had a movie night, before all kids were in bed fairly early.

Sunday, Mother's Day, I was awoken to the boys bringing me their homemade gifts from school and the Colin told me that he had been up off and on since 2am not feeling well. Sure enough he had a fever.  So, I had to cancel our plans to go to Carol's house for crabs and stay home with Colin.  My Mom called and offered to take the healthy kids so I took her up on taking Evan and Logan.  I left Leah with me because I didn't want her to be babysitting on Mother's day and I figured the boys were easy and would entertain themselves with their cousins.

Actually, my brother in law, Phil, also offered to come over and watch Colin because he felt bad that I was stuck at home on Mother's Day, but I didn't think that was fair to Julie to take her husband away from her on her special day too.  I am so blessed to have such an awesome family though!

Anyway, it was good I didn't take Phil up on that because Colin's fever went up and he threw up a couple times.  He then took a 3-4 hour nap.  Leah and I just hung out and overall, it was a quiet Mother's Day.

My kids are hardly ever sick.  They all have perfect school attendance and have never had a sick visit to the pediatrician here in VA, so I couldn't believe that out of all the days of the year he was sick for Mother's Day.  But, that is life with kids.

Anyway, I enjoyed all my gifts and even enjoyed the fairly quiet day as well.

Triple Header Weekend. First Tball game for Logan.

This weekend we had our first weekend of the year of all three boys having games.  Colin's soccer team fought a tough game and lost 2-0.  Evan's team won their second game.  He got to play first base a couple innings and got 3 outs which he was excited about.  I offered to hold the assistant coaches 7 month old baby during the game, so he could have his hands free to coach.  He was there on his own, without his wife.  I loved every second of it, he was such a good baby.  I have said it before, but if I lived in a different time where kids didn't have to go to college or be in school activities, I would probably have at least 6 kids.  I absolutely love the 0-4 ages.  I am sure I missed my calling and should have been an OB or labor and delivery nurse, I would have absolutely loved my job.

Anyway, last was Logan's first Tball game.  He was very cute to watch.  Of course there was some playing with dirt, because at this age only the "pitcher" and the first baseman get any action.  He did great when he was pitcher though.  He also did well hitting but always paused after the hit forgetting to drop the bat quickly and run, it was so cute!

Saturday my Mom called out of the blue asking if we wanted to go out on a date night and that she could come over and babysit that evening.  That was a great surprise.  It had been almost 3 months since our last date night so we enjoyed going to the movies and having dinner there.  I have many friends that go out weekly as a couple and while we would love to be able to do that, babysitters are expensive and we feel bad asking family to babysit, because we feel like everyone is already busy watching other kids.  So, our time alone together is few and far between.  As a result, we do not hesitate to say yes if someone offers!

The rest of the weekend was spent with Dennis having many trips to Home Depot and getting the garden ready to plant some vegetables.  I have always wanted a veggie garden and when we moved into this house there was already an abandoned garden bed.  So, all week I spent pulling weeds, rocks and roots and tilling the soil to get it ready.  Dennis then spent the weekend putting up a new fence (we are making the garden smaller than the original bed) and trying to make it bunny proof.  He also bought a ton of soil to mix in with the old stuff.  So, hopefully this week I will plant the seedlings and we will see how it goes.  I am sure the first couple years will be some trial and error to see what works.  But, we are very excited to give it a go.

Easter 2015

Easter this year was a bit different.  We are used to it just being us and being away from family for Easter.  It is always a pretty quiet holiday for us.  But, this year being in town it was much busier.  The kids searched for their Easter baskets, which is always a highlight for them.  Then we had a yummy breakfast and got ready for church.  Leah at church was not good.  She kept talking really loud and then had a temper tantrum so Dennis spent most the time outside with her.

After church we headed to Grammy and Grandpa Pritchard's.  All my extended family was there so there was probably 50ish people there.  We did an egg hunt for the kids and had a huge lunch.  The kids also did various crafts and games.

Then we headed to Grandma McLaughlin and Roberts house.  We had a great dinner and the kids played outside.  It was much more quiet since it was just us there, but that was a nice welcome change from the busier morning.

Overall, it was a great day and was nice to get to visit with so much family.  Leah by the way LOVED getting to dress up.  She was so excited about the "princess" dress, the dress shoes, the hair bow and especially the necklace the Easter bunny brought her!

Spring Break 2015

This year's Spring Break was pretty quiet overall.  Dennis couldn't take off work because of various other vacations this year…a Europe trip he has in May, a trip to Indy he goes to every August, the beach in July and then we are surprising the kids with a Disney trip in Novemeber (Shhh…don't tell, we aren't going to tell them until right before we go).

So, it was really just me and the kids.  Monday, we went to the library to pick up some good books for the week.

Tuesday, we took them to Ticonderoga Farms in Chantilly and we really had the BEST day.  The weather was great and there was so much to do.  We took a hay ride, which went through a swamp, the kids couldn't believe it!  They did some slides down a hill, jumped on some huge bounce pillows, raced some carts, went through a maze and we saw some animals.  Leah is really my only animal lover.  She absolutely loved trying to feed the animals.  She also kept talking to them…"Hi goat, what are you doing?"  Logan, who likes animals the least, spent the whole time far away in the stroller!

Because the kids were so good, I also treated them to ice cream!

Wednesday night, we drove up to Holly's house in Maryland and spent the night.  We got up the next morning and went in to Baltimore with Holly's family and my parents.  We spent the day at the aquarium, having a nice lunch and walking along the harbor, we also watched a street performance with was great.

The rest of the vacation was just spent hanging out at home and outside too!

Oh, we also moved Leah to her big girl bed!  I was so sad to get rid of the crib.  She probably could have fit in it another year, but we decided to move her the same time we did the boys, because we knew we didn't have any issues with the transition with them at that age.  Sure enough, she did great too.  She was a little nervous when we turned the lights off, but I gave her her lovie and asked if she wanted Minnie Mouse and then she was fine.  I can't believe we are saying goodbye to a nursery set we have had for 10 years!  I don't think being done with the baby stage will ever be easy:-(.

Logan's 5th Birthday!

Logan at 5 is a funny kid.  He is pretty serious a lot of the time.  He doesn't talk a lot but he isn't as shy or as sensitive as his older brothers either.

Logan is incredibly street smart and independent.  I am pretty sure he could probably survive a long time on his own if he needed to.  He already makes his breakfast and sometimes his lunch on his own.

He is becoming an excellent big brother to Leah.  He loves to play with her and is very loving too.  He really makes my life so much easier most days because he helps me take care of her.  Logan at this point goes back and forth between playing with Leah and playing with his big brothers.

He tends to be more of a home body like me.  He would choose to stay inside and play then to go to a play date if you ask him.  But, he always has fun once he is there.  He loves to build things with all sizes of legos and he is also really into video and computer games (too much if you ask me).

Logan is in the 50% for height and weight.  I believe he was 40lbs at his appointment.  Not too long ago we registered him for Kindergarten and he is so ready to go!  He can't wait to get on the bus with his brothers.  September can't come fast enough for him.

This year Logan really wanted to have a birthday party with his friends.  Since his class only has 12 kids in it, we decided to invite the whole class a long with his cousins.  They had so much fun at the sport bounce place near us (Logan's pick).  He had been talking about his Birthday for a year so he was very excited the day was finally here!  Then some of his cousins came back to our house and played some more here.  It was a great day!

Report Cards and Update on Kids

A few things to update on...

My back has been a lot better.  The pain is still there, occasionally I will sit right on a bad spot and jump up in pain.  But, for the most part I can do all my daily activities now.  Thank goodness!

Colin and Evan got their report cards yesterday.  I am so grateful for smart kids!  Colin got all A's except a B in Math...so he got honor roll!  I was annoyed with the B in Math because that is his best subject and the teacher knows it, he even wrote that the B was all because of rushing and silly mistakes, he knows the material.  So, we have to work on that, but I am sure that will be a constant struggle with him.  Anyway, very happy with his grades, he does great in school and is pretty responsible these days with getting all his homework done and doing it all pretty independently.

Evan doesn't get A's and B's yet, but he got all 0's (Outstanding), on his report card for his main subjects. Again, really proud of him.  Evan has a great memory that serves him well in school.  He doesn't love doing homework, he has a short attention span for it, but he gets it done, I am sure this will improve as he gets older and has a longer attention span.  But, for the most part homework has been pretty stress free this year.  This school system is much easier then they are used to and the homework is less to, so it has been a pretty easy year this year.

Despite school being fairly easy, I haven't gotten any reports from either kid of any bad behavior.  Both teachers had nice things to say about them, so that makes me so happy!

A week ago, I also had a teacher conference for Logan.  Because of school being closed that day for snow, it was over the phone.  His teacher said he was one of the strongest in his class and that she has absolutely no concerns about his readiness for Kindergarten!  For those that know Logan, he is VERY independent.  He doesn't like to spend much time doing any learning activities with me, he quits pretty quickly once he doesn't know something.  I think because he is so independent it frustrates him to not know how to read.  He wants to be able to do everything his brothers do.  So, I really don't know how much he actually knows.  Recently, he is starting to write his letters and draw more, so I think he is really starting to want to learn.  He knows all his letters, just doesn't know all the sounds they make yet, but, I have a feeling he is going to take off in the next few months...

Leah...well, don't want to leave this girl out...Leah is so fun.  She is super girly, she loves wearing necklaces and bracelets.  She also loves shoes.  She always wants to wear sparkly shoes and church shoes.  I need to hide these, because I do not like when her clothes and shoes don't match!  I like girls dressed pretty conservatively, I do not like sparkly shoes or sparkly clothes, character clothes, or loud colors.  The only reason she even has some of these shoes/clothes is hand me downs.  I prefer more classic clothing.  But, this girl, loves all things girly!

Leah loves Mickey/Minnie still and all those characters.  She is also starting to learn the names of the princesses like Cinderella and Aurora.  She calls her "Sleeping Booty".  Leah will say "I'm fine"  or "I will be fine" if she wants to do something herself.  She is sassy and is not afraid to yell at her big brothers.  The love to pester her, but they also are extremely loving toward her and helpful with her.  I am so grateful for that.  Leah loves to dance (yay for this!), she also loves to sing ("Let it go" is her favorite).

Ok, I guess I have written enough, I could go on and on about my kids...will add pics soon.

Play Dates are Dangerous.

The last few weeks have been some of the roughest I have experienced so far.  I was at a play date about 2 1/2 weeks ago and I slipped on her basement stairs landing on my bottom and then bouncing a few steps.  The pain was like nothing I have ever felt before and took the breath out of me.  It was at the end of the playdate any way so I gathered up the kids and left not fully realizing how bad it was.  Well, as soon as I tried to lift Leah into the car and get myself in the car I had incredible pain.  I was in tears the whole way home, to which Logan replied, "Why did you say you were ok?"

I powered through and got the kids home and fed lunch, Logan offered to make them sandwiches, he is such an awesome kid!  Then I got him to school (again getting in and out of the car was excruciating).  Logan said, "When I get home from school, I will carry Leah for you".  I then got Leah down for a nap and spent a couple hours laying on ice.  I chose not to go to the doctor because I know that even if it was fractured or bruised the treatment is the same.  Tailbone injuries are just very painful and can last 4-8 weeks (sometimes longer), so there is nothing to do but ice, aleve and rest.  Unfortunately, rest has been very hard.  When you are a mom of 4 and spend 12 hours of your day alone with your kids, there isn't any time for rest.  Well, that's not true, we have spent many days laying on the couch watching movies to rest, but I still have to feed them and take them places, etc…

The next morning, my mom, hearing I got hurt, texted me and asked if I wanted her to come spend the day and help since her schools were out for snow.  She was a huge help taking Logan to and from school and the kids to and from church class and lifting Leah up into her crib for me.  I was so bad at that point Evan had to help me off the toilet and Colin was helping me get up from the couch.  Luckily, since then, I can do those things independently, but the pain is constant.  I can walk normally, so no one would know how much pain I am in, but it is still very much there.  The worst is bending to pick something up, lifting anything, stairs, sitting on a couch and getting up and down.  I also am really struggling to get any sleep.  I never realized how many times I have to bend during the day, but now that I can't do it, I am watching the house get messier and messier and that is adding to my stress.  Every time I try to do some cleaning I flare it up.

I now have much sympathy for people with back pain and with chronic pain, because it is really rough. Moms don't have time for this.  I have dishes that need to be washed constantly, kids to shuffle places, meals to make, constant cleaning to do, laundry every day, and yet all these things are so painful to do.  I think on top of the pain the cold weather, the lack of sleep and the many hours Dennis is gone are all really causing me to have the blues lately.  I am grateful for his job, but being alone with the kids from the time we wake up till almost 7 pm every day is exhausting, especially now being in pain.

I'm really struggling lately also to figure out how to make everything work.  I am noticing that everyone here in Nova that has a lot of kids (and lets face some who only have 1-2 kids too) either has a Nanny, Au Pair or a Grandparent that helps them out.  For the most part, except for the very rare occasion or one of us is out of town, it is just Dennis and I on our own.  Well, lets face it, most of the time it is just me on my own, but Dennis does help a lot on the weekends.

Anyway, as Spring comes we will have 3 kids in sports, not sure how I am going to get them all to and from practices and then games on the Saturdays.  Then come fall I am planning to go back to work part time and I am stressing about how to make that work too.  Part of the reason I stopped working is that it was so stressful to have to call in when kids were sick or when school is out.  I always hated to have to take the day off.  Then there is Summer break….we can't afford to pay for 4 kids summer camp.  So, I am not sure what we are going to do, maybe try to find a part time Nanny for the summers?  The costs of things here in Nova are really getting to me to. Day care is so expensive and next year we have to pay for both Logan and Leah, since I don't have anyone to watch Leah and Logan's Kindergarten is only half day here.

So, between sports and school costs and daycare costs and house stuff, I feel like we are throwing our money away these days.  I am trying to really cut back where I can, but it is a struggle with a big family living here.  So, that is another reason I didn't go to the doctor, I don't want to pay for an X-ray that isn't going to change anything.

Oh well, I could go on and on…but point is, things have been rough.  I am hoping this heals up quick so I can keep up with all the busy times coming up once sports start back up…

(oh and once I can sit a bit longer, I will update my blog, I have posts written, just need to add the pictures to them)

George is Back!

This past weekend was fairly quiet overall.  Saturday morning we did go to the kids school for a really fun event.  They had a holiday shop where kids can go in and shop for their siblings or parents or whoever and each gift is less than $5.  Then it gets wrapped up before they ever come out.  The boys had so much fun doing this and I think it will make Christmas morning very special for them to get gifts from each other that they picked out and pay for themselves.  The event also had various crafts and activities for the kids and a raffle and silent auction.  We were excited to find out the next day that we won a 4 person VIP pass, including a pre game and post game "experience" and a signed soccer ball from DC United.  So, we look forward to going to that next season.

Then, Logan had a birthday party for one of the girls in our play group.  He had a blast doing that.  I was a bit embarrassed to show up at the birthday party with him in full (tiger) makeup.  When he said he wanted to get it done at the boys school, I completely wasn't thinking about the birthday party he was going straight to!  Oh well!

The rest of the day was spent running errands and doing things around the house.

Sunday morning the kids were super excited to see that their elf, George, was making an appearance again this year!  George brought them donuts and presents with Christmas PJ's in it!  He also wrote a letter reminding them to be good.

Sunday evening we brought dinner and dessert over to Aunt Meghan, who was recovering from foot surgery.  Without sports right now our weekends are relatively calm, which is a nice change of pace.

Visit to Santa

I took the younger two to the mall today to pick up a few gifts and we decided to see Santa too.  Leah was unsure the whole time in line, but was hanging in there because of the promise that Santa had lollipops.  Well, as soon as she was placed on Santa's lap she started crying!  But, those make for the best Santa pictures anyway!  Logan did great, he was super excited to see Santa and told him very quietly that he wanted a Max the Tow Truck.

Here are a couple other photos of these two recently…

Thanksgiving break…(and Loggie takes home turtles)

Logan was so excited last Monday when I picked him up from school because he got to take home the class turtles.  They aren't real, they are stuffed turtles, in case you were wondering.  Their names are Shelby and Shelton.  Logan got to have them all week.  He took them to Thanksgiving dinners, he took them to the movie theater when Dennis took all the boys on Friday, and he slept with them each night.  He had so much fun filling out their journal with all the adventures they did over the week.

At the movies…not a great pic!

Thanksgiving break was really nice.  Besides taking the kids to the movie, we decorated for Christmas. I convinced Dennis that since we were staying put for the holidays and even hosting my family for Christmas dinner that it was time to get a real tree and not pull out our pathetic skinny artificial one.  He reluctantly agreed and we had fun picking one out on Saturday and decorating on Sunday.  I always love pulling out all the ornaments that have so many memories attached to them.  It is always a fun day for the kids too!  So far Leah has stayed away from all the ornaments, hopefully it continues!  She loves when it is lit up though!

THANKSGIVING 2014

WE ARE THANKFUL…

We are thankful for so much in our lives.  In all the craziness of this season in our life, we forget to just pause and realize how much we really have and how blessed we are.  I am so glad that at least on Thanksgiving we take a moment to pause and realize, wow, we really do have so much!

I am thankful for an amazing husband, who really works so hard.  Last night he left the house at 6 am and got home at 7:20pm, just in time to kiss the kids goodnight and brush a couple kids teeth.  I wish he was around more, but I know he is working so hard to provide for us and I really admire his work ethic and hope that is passed down to our kids.  I also know that him working so hard has enabled me to stay home and raise the kids and me staying home has also helped him to do what he wants to do in his career.

I am thankful for my kids, who are kind, funny and bright.  Even though some days are rough and many days are so busy we don't have a second to breathe, they really make life so enjoyable!

I am also very thankful to not have to travel for the holidays anymore!!!  While the adventures were fun as a family, holidays are so much less stressful to not have to pack for 6 people, and fly or drive with 4 kids!  This was such a nice Thanksgiving, to be able to sleep in our own beds and yet still see almost all of our families!

We did the usual…spent lunch at Grandma Bridgers house.  We had an amazing meal!  Leah loved the dog.  She is turning out to be the only big animal lover in our family of 6.

We then went to Julie and Phil's for dinner and to see my side of the family.  Since Julie and Phil go to his family's for lunch, Holly and my Mom were the ones who did most of the cooking,  The kids had fun as always, how can you not when there are 16 kids running around!

I was horrible about taking pics this year!

Champions…

Colin ended his football season with an incredible nail biting final win in the finals, to go undefeated!  It was a great game in a high school stadium.  They even announced the kids names at the beginning and each time they made a play.  It was so fun!  The jury is still out on if he will play again next year, it depends on the day what he wants to do.  I think he will have a better idea after he plays soccer this spring.  Regardless, it was a great season, and great group of kids.  They had an end of the season party at a local gym, which was tons of fun too!

Family.

I use this blog for many reasons…One is to keep track of all the funny things my kids say, another is to remember all the memories we have and so my kids could look back on them when they get older.  The last reason is as a journal for myself.  This post is more of a personal journal entry.  I keep this blog private so that I can use it for personal journaling as well as for sharing kids pictures.  I like to look back and read my own thoughts on things at different stages in my life, so that is what this is for.  Feel free to skip this entry for more interesting kid updates…

One thing I am learning as I get older is that "Family" means different things to different people.  I am realizing that people are really shaped by their upbringing and who they are surrounded with.  The first person I met who had divorced parents was in college.  That is so strange to me now, to think that it took me that long to be exposed to the concept of divorce.  I feel like my children have been exposed to broken families so much younger and I have had to talk to them about what that means so much younger.

When I look at my youth, I was surrounded by friends whose parents are still married to this date.  Every friend I have had growing up, through college, still has married parents (the obvious exception being my husband:-).  All my parents friends that they have had since their 30's are still married.  Why is this, when 50% end in divorce?  In my own family, I don't have a single aunt, uncle, grandparent, cousin, etc…who is divorced.  The only divorce in my family is my brother in law who was married prior to meeting to my sister.  I always thought this was because of our Catholic upbringing.  But, not all my relatives are practicing Catholics and I can't say I was brought up in a very strict Catholic home.  I think that it is more than religious views.  I think that it is a general belief system of what marriage means and what family means.

What really got me thinking about this was a conversation I had with my Arabic Grandmother a month ago.  So much of my values come from my Arabic background.  There, the concept of family and putting family first above all else is so huge.  They also believe in a strong extended family.  When you get married you aren't just in words part of the family, you literally are one of the family, and treated no different.  Daughter in laws will live with their mother in law and stick around even if the husband dies.  I think when you have this view point it takes out the option of divorce, because just like you wouldn't divorce your parents, why would you divorce your husband/wife, they are your family.  For better or worse.  Divorce is just not an option or something even thought about.

I am realizing as I get older that in many American homes, they don't see the married spouse as really part of the family.  They are still kept at a distance or maybe treated different.  My parents don't do this.  Dennis is very much part of our family.  They spend the exact same on him for Birthdays and Christmas as they do for me.  My brother in laws are all very close with each other and with Dennis and we all get a long as one big family.  We all vacation together, Dennis has poker nights and my Uncle's, Dad, cousins, etc…will all come.  He literally is one of the family.  The way many Americans households work, where it isn't like this, it so much easier to divorce, because those relationships between the person and the family just isn't there and the spouses themselves don't see each other as true family.

I hope that despite all the exposure my kids get to different types of families that they are able to hold on to the importance of marriage and family.  I want them to choose wisely when they marry, knowing that marriage is forever.  I want them to view their spouse as their family and take divorce off the table.  I want them to view their in laws as their family and consider the whole family when they think about whether or not to marry someone. I am not sure how to pass these values on to them and it is something as a parent I really struggle with.  How do I instill in them all the values I want to pass down, when they are surrounded on t.v, in school, etc by the complete opposite?

I also want my kids to be close with each other as I am with my siblings.  We hang out all the time because we genuinely want to.  I spend a lot of time talking to my kids about "brothers stick together" and "brothers take care of each other", and I can honestly say that at least now they are all really good friends.  Sure they argue during a game of football, but they also play with each other daily and have similar interests.  I know they really love each other and I hope that continues.  I hope they always want to be a part of each other lives and that even when they are married they come together as my family does.

It is interesting as you get older to realize how different people and events in your life have shaped who you are and what you believe.  You don't realize when your younger that basic beliefs aren't shared by all and even now I have moments where I realize wow this isn't something everyone thinks about or feels a certain way about. It is also very scary as a parent to realize that so many people other than yourself will shape your child into who they are and what they believe.  As somewhat of a control freak that really scares me.

Parenthood is full of so much self doubt and I am starting to think of parenthood as holding your breath and waiting 18-25 years to see how it all pans out and then you can let it out.  I hope that when I do let out that big breath that I can be proud of both who they have become and also of myself and the job I did.

Leah's Doctor's Appointment and Good News for Colin.

Monday, Leah had her doctors visit.  She is 21 lbs 8 oz (about 10%) and 33in (between 25-50%).  So, she is growing well.  She got one shot and barely cried.  Here are some pics I never posted…

Tuesday we got a letter that Colin got into the gifted program here, so he was very excited about that. Now we are just waiting to find out what day he will officially start, as he will get bused to a different school on Fridays for the gifted program.

Tuesday, I also went to Colin and Evan's classes for American Education Week.  In Evan's class the kids did various crafts related to Native Americans.  The parents that were there helped them at the various stations.  I helped with a glitter station.  I then went to Colin's class.  They were doing various activities with pumpkins.  I stayed with Colin's group the whole time.  They had to make predictions on their pumpkins weight and height and amount of seeds, etc.  And then find the actual.  They then painted and decorated their pumpkins into various literary characters.  Both classes were a lot of fun and I was grateful that Dennis could work from home for the morning so that I wouldn't need to bring Logan and Leah with me.

Wednesday, Dennis worked from home again, this time all day, so that I could attend Logan's preschool Thanksgiving feast.  It was right during the time Leah would be napping and the boys would be getting home from school, so I needed him home to let the boys in after they got home.  Logan then requested that Dennis go to his school instead (since he rarely gets a chance to attend these events), and luckily Dennis was able to get away.  So I stayed home with the other kids which killed me by the way, I hate missing anything at their schools), while Dennis went to the Thanksgiving feast.  Logan's class sang songs and they had a great meal from what I hear!

Leah Turns 2.

I have been dreading this moment.  The day my youngest baby turns 2.  Well let's just say I pretty much dread every big day in her life, because I just don't want her to get any older.  I am definitely missing having a baby in the house.

But, since I can't slow down time, I guess this day had to come.  Leah at 2 is so many things.  She is sassy, independent, funny, and dramatic...oh how she is dramatic!  She is also sweet and loving too.  She will cuddle for a bit, but for the most part she is on the go.  She loves to climb furniture and go flying down the stairs on her belly.

Leah loves sucking her thumb and carrying around her lulu (her lovie blanket).  She likes soft things and will insist on all 3 blankets at bedtime.  She likes to play with her brothers and she loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, she will ask for Minnie Mouse as soon as she wakes up.

Leah is a pretty good eater though like all kids is unpredictable with how much she will eat.  Sometimes she will have 3 servings and other times she will barely touch her food.  Her favorites are bananas, green beans, zucchini, asparagus, brussel sprouts, pineapple, grapes and melon and any kind of sauce, especially ketchup and ranch.  She is not a huge fan of meat in general, but sometimes will surprise us and eat it all up.  Usually she will eat the stuff the boys won't eat and won't eat the stuff they love.  Leah also has a love for lollipops.

We had a Minnie Mouse Birthday party for her.  She LOVED the big Minnie balloon and carried it around the whole time.  She also loved a soft minnie blanket she got and a skirt that was so soft.  Leah is playing most with her Minnie toy.

 We had just family over, since just immediate family pretty much fills up the house.  Dennis made the Minnie head for the cake and did an awesome job.

One quick note, I spent Thursday night with her in the ER after she fell from her chair and hit her head.  She wasn't acting herself and then after baths she started to vomit.  After a few attempts of putting her to bed and then her vomiting, we called the doctor and were told to go to the ER.  We were trying to avoid it because of the costs, but unfortunately we had to go.  She threw up a couple more times while I was there, but the CT scan turned out ok and after a couple doses of Zofran she stopped vomiting and was able to go home.  Luckily, all was well by the party on Saturday.