January on FB

 Welcome 2023!

My kids tell me that the fact that I save and share memes is proof that I am old. All I have to say to that is,  "Eh, what's that sonny? You got to speak louder closer to my good ear!"

I have only gotten 3 texts and 5 emails (so far) that today is an early release day for the schools. 

MESSAGE RECEIVED

Mom finished my birthday gift yesterday: this bright and beautiful quilt! I proceeded to snuggle under it and then glare at the boys hissing "my preciousssssss"

Kidding, but I did tell them to keep their hands off 🤪

Note to streaming services: Please stop it with categories like "fun for the whole family". 

Just say what they are: shows that won't give little kids nightmares but will make teens and adults want to watch paint dry or water boil in search of better entertainment

B: A fiddle is just a violin that has gone to the dark side

PSA for parents of K-5 kiddos: Jan 30 is almost too late to buy Valentines for your kid's class 

Sincerely, 

A parent who had to dig among the partially crushed boxes of slim pickings at Target this morning

What's your superpower? Mine is almost getting stuck in the bathroom every morning because I put lotion on my hands right BEFORE opening the door.

Swim - A Season

Continuing Michael's year of sports-he's-never-done-before, he just finished up his first season of swim team. He started off the season thinking he was in great shape from cross-country. Then he went to practice and discovered that swim is another beast entirely. But, he persevered and made a respectable showing and definitely learned a ton in a relatively short period of time.

Now on to the play, which mercifully doesn't require the use of nearly as many towels every week! 

A Boy and his Pokemon

This is Isaac living his best life.

His best Pokémon life. Back in the day, I remember my cousin being into Pokémon. Who knew that many years later Pokémon would still be with us. 

And yet, here we are. Josh is flying around the country to participate in Pokémon video game competitions and Isaac is collecting cards and stuffies. The stuffy thing started with Josh bringing home a Dratini from SLC. Then Uncle Doug bought him Dragonite for Christmas. Aunt Rachel added Pikachu to the collection. And then Pichu from Josh when he returned from San Diego. 

I caught him watching Pokémon cartoons surrounded by his Pokémon on his "sick" day (spiked a fever the night before, totally fine now) so asked him to smile for a picture. I think Pokémon are here to stay.

Virginia Adventure

November came with a bit of medical drama from the east coast. Dad was admitted to the hospital after Thanksgiving with a bladder infection, severe dehydration, ketoacidosis, COVID-19, brain shrinkage and dementia-like symptoms. He had also lost 30 pounds and was refusing to eat or drink much. After the hospital got most of his acute issues under control, they sent him home and he was receiving some in-home nursing care and physical therapy with follow-up appointments with a neurologist and his primary physician. He continued to have mobility and cognitive issues that were concerning.

With no definitive diagnoses and a great deal of uncertainty about his memory, I received a phone call from Diane offering to pay for all of us to fly out to visit and see him. While I had been planning on flying out in January when the kids had gone back to school, this plan had a lot of benefits. I did discover why we don't travel like this as a family ($$$$$). It was an amazing offer. Pulling up our family Google Calendar, we picked the dates 12/28-12/31 and got ready to fly.

All three older boys have flown this year (Josh got back from Germany two days before Christmas in fact), but this was Isaac's first plane ride. 

None of them had ridden a horse before, but our time in VA fixed that. Kenna helped the boys into saddles and led the horse around on mini-trips.

Oma did a fabulous job of planning adventures to keep the kids occupied and make memories with their Virginia cousins. The older cousins did an escape room. 

Isaac and Lyssa spent some time at the children's museum.

And to add another item to their list of new experiences: axe throwing. 

And I had to include this epic picture Jason took of the boys in the hotel pool.

Too soon our time in Virginia was up and we were boarding a plane for home. 

December on FB

The kids and I have this really fun winter tradition where they hope and dream and pray for snow days and I remind them that any days they get off now get added to the end of the school year. They tell me they don't care and then they get angry in June when they end up having to go to school to the end of the month.

Good times. Good times.

We put the Christmas decorations up yesterday as a family.

So tell me, how did you torture your teenagers this weekend?

It turns out that when Isaac blows his nose with a tissue that he ends up with copious amounts of green snot all over the OUTSIDE of the tissue.

So, yeah, we're all going to get this one.

Our house in one word: ca-cough-any

If these kids ever go back to school, I'm going to send them off in the morning with "I love you, have a good day, and for the love of all the good in the world don't touch anything or breathe near other people"

 

If you are still looking for a gift for someone in your life who could potentially get someone pregnant one day, I HIGHLY recommend this book. Also would work for a graduation gift. Or a "just because" gift.

Parenting pro tip: if you put a pile of used tissues by where the Christmas gifts are hidden, the kids will definitely stay away

Forgot to post about this guy's birthday last week

Good news: he can make his own lunch

Bad news: he doesn't fit quite as well on my lap anymore

I made it!

My top 5 this year:

-Ejaculate Responsibly (Gabrielle Blair)

-Secrets of the Sprakkar (Eliza Reid)

-How to Be Perfect (Michael Schur)

-Pandora's Jar (Natalie Haynes)

-Cloud Cuckoo Land (Anthony Doerr)

What should I add my "to read" list for next year?

Winter Break Family Fun

Jason took a week off of work between Christmas and New Years so we decided to fill it with some family fun activities. Later in the week we have a trip to VA planned, but started the week with bowling and rock climbing.

It's been a while since any of us have bowled. After a few rounds I am pretty sure that we should play this game MarioKart style and give the loseriest loser some pity bumpers to help me them out. Though Isaac did manage to actually miss all of the pins once even with bumpers so I guess it isn't a guarantee.

Round one was a little rough.

And round two Jason blew us all out of the water. 

For some reason the older boys don't think taking selfies with their mom is super cool. Weird, right?

Next up: rock climbing. Our choices were limited to the auto-belay lines and the bouldering walls (except Isaac). 

Although Isaac never made it to the top, he spent more time on the wall than any of us. He loved it. Up and down and up and down and up and down. Most of us were done after a little bit, but he would have been happy to stay longer. I am thinking next time we save ourselves some money and just take him and spend the day.

After two days of arm intensive activities we spent the evening packing for our trip to Virginia.

Christmas

Another year, another tree, another stash of gifts.

 

We let the boys open one gift on Christmas Eve. They are all really bad at pretending to be shocked that the gift is pajamas.

This year's pajamas have antlers so head-butting chaos ensued.

After some sleep it was time for the yearly photoshoot with the yearly threat that I can take hundreds of pictures if necessary so they might as well stop moving (Isaac) and look at me (the rest of the boys).

I don't have any pics from the gift opening session, but there were plenty of "awesome!" and "let's go!" with a few "thank you!!" thrown in. Since Nana is still in Germany, this is actually just first Christmas but it was a good one. Later in the morning we played JackBox over Zoom with Nana and Aunt Rachel.  Good times!

Our Christmas letter:

Jason continues his upward climb in state government as he was promoted to Executive Director for Elementary Education, Early Learning, and Federal Programs. Say that 5 times fast! They may need to start increasing the size of his business cards to fit all those words. He also turned FIFTY and took a big leap….out of an airplane.  He may never be the same again. Irene hasn’t failed out of her graduate program (yet) though she does have plans later this month to roast marshmallows over a bonfire of all of the articles she has printed out this semester. She bought a MetaQuest2 headset for one of her classes and the kids are now very supportive of her graduate program. She also squeezed in a couple of backpacking trips this summer and is already planning for next year. Josh graduated from high school and the ceremony was thankfully under 5 hours. We are crazy proud of him. He learned some excellent life lessons working at Taco Bell (mainly that it is not fun working at Taco Bell) and is now working at the movie theatre learning a similar lesson. This fall he began an A.S. in Cybersecurity degree which appears to necessitate even more computers in his room. Michael is thriving in high school. He has been on two new sports teams this year: cross-country and swim. The teams and coaches have been incredibly supportive and he has several PRs under his belt. Music continues to pervade his existence as he sings in the choir, takes voice lessons, and often decides to practice piano after his brother is already in bed. Ben added Jazz Band to his schedule because apparently more concerts = more fun? Also, with a cello AND a bass we might need to build an extension on to his room. He played two more seasons of soccer and continued to hone his defense skills and tolerance for playing in the rain. Isaac continues to work his way towards the position of “family social butterfly” and participates in what appears to be a thriving black market in the 2nd grade. After a break, he is back in swim lessons which he loves and it is difficult to extract him from the pool twice a week.