Stages of Life

Since three of my kids are gone to school during the day now, I feel I've entered yet another new stage of life. And since I don't have anything about the kids to blog I think I'll put up a post about good old ME, a novel idea.

We are three weeks into the school year now and I've got our/my routine down. From 7-8:30am I am in go-mode with the kids. I have always been a morning person, most productive and energetic when I first wake up and like a dead battery in the evening, so I make the most of our time before school.

I have the kids do the big five each morning:

1- scriptures
2- prayers
3- piano practice
4- homework
5- chores

They are really good about getting from thing to thing because the reward is a relaxing, free afternoon when they get home from school at 4pm. I love sending them off knowing the important things are done for the day, it takes the pressure off. But our mornings mean business.

I send them off on their bikes to school now (yes, jake came home alone the morning of the 2nd day of school when I tried this, but he is more confident now and does great!) I quickly tidy the kitchen, put Claire down for her nap and get my swimming suit on because I have been teaching swimming lessons every morning at 9am this month! :)

I have five little students who are beginning swimmers! It has been so fun to help them get comfortable in the water and start to swim. A new hobby I guess. I wrap lessons up about 10:30, just about the time Claire wakes up and we begin our day together.

On my to-do lists?:

We're getting ready to paint to interior of the house, so I have been busy putting swatches up all over to see what we like! I painted the whole bottom half of the kitchen last week with a green we thought we liked, but don't now. So that was a learning experience.


I've been working on a photo wall above the stairs which I have wanted to do since we moved in 2.5 years ago. My BF was cleaning out her closet and mentioned all these dusty old black frames she needed to take to goodwill and I shouted, "I want them!" to her over the phone. It's coming along cute!


I've been reading a great book (highly recommended for helping you become a better mom/wife/family member!), the Duggar's Book, A Love the Multiplies. I could do a whole post on this book but I won't, its just full of parenting tips and perspective changes that I've loved.


I've been keeping the house cleaner! I can finally say that I'm getting good at doing my laundry, my life's nemesis. My mom suggested an ingenious idea months ago for me to get different color laundry baskets for everyone in the family. And instead of dragging my clean clothes out in front of the TV to be folded...and then to sit there for days... I stay inside the laundry room to put the clothes straight from the dryer into the baskets folded! Wha-la! Job done and no mess all over the house. I'm loving it. I do laundry all day Monday and Tuesday mornings the kids' chore is to take their baskets down stairs to put their clothes away and bring their baskets back empty. It's been fabulous. I also bought me a vacuumm for the stairs! With my big vacuumm, I was only getting to the job once every other month-ish (whether the stairs needed it or not, wink wink) so I figured I needed a better solution. I splurged - $40 whole bucks - and the problem is solved.



This weekend we're headed to our time-share in Las Vegas. Feels a little weird to be taking the family there for vacation, but we go in search of the good Vegas has to offer and have some fun things planned. We're excited.

Playing dress-up w Jake at Pottery Barn Kids

Gone Camping

We went camping with our ward last Friday night. It was great to get up into the mountains where the air was cooler. Everytime I go camping I say, "we should do this more often!" and then we don't. I said it again this year. The kids were in heaven running around with their buddies in the woods. Ty and I relaxed and enjoyed our foil dinners and smores. All went well until Jakey burned his fingers pretty good on someone's lantern. It was high pitched screaming for a while in the dark after that until we got ice and medicine and him settled down. It was sad and he still has blisters on every one of his finger tips (it was actually pretty scary, I felt so unprepared for an emergency in the woods, this week I've made some first-aid updates to our camping gear!). Thankfully everyone, including Jake and Claire, slept well in the tent and our trip was a success. Nothing like coming home with bags of smokey clothes and pillow cases to wash to celebrate a good night spent in the wilderness!

Sound Asleep

One of our favorite things to do each night right before we go to bed is sneak in and check on the kids sleeping. If one of us heads towards Claire's room without waiting for the other, it's big trouble. Opening the door to her nursery is a treat, it smells like baby and she is so cute to stare at. I captured these pictures the other night at the risk of waking her up because I feel like she is getting bigger by the day! How can we freeze this child and keep her like she is forever?!

Plus look how cute she is with her blankie. She knows it and loves it and keeps it around her throughout the night.

Sisters

I asked Ashley to read a book to Claire for me so I could finish getting the boys ready for school. They look so cute together.

Enjoying the Piano

Ashley and Luke began taking piano lessons again last Monday. Luke has been playing for a couple years, but this is Ashley's first time. They have been practicing great all week and look what they have learned! We are proud of them both!

One is not enough.

...Either is two, or three, or ten. Enjoy some snapshots of Claire! ;)

Birthday Boy Jake!

Jake is 5! He had his Super Mario Swim Party on Saturday with 7 of his buddies. They had a fun time! Today is his actual birthday, but when we wished him a Happy Birthday this morning, he was confused and said, "What?! I am SIX now?!" As far as he is concerned Saturday was his birthday and he turned five when he blew out five candles at his party. We could have left it at that. But I wanted to take cupcakes in to school today, which he was happy about, of course. His teacher announced that there was a birthday boy in the room then had Jake come up front. He was beaming, and a little bit shy. When she asked how old he was today he said, "Six." Classic. Fast year between Saturday and today I guess. I corrected him by saying he was five and he was like 'whatever', and enjoyed some more chocolate cake. It was cute.

Jake is a one in a million kid. When Tyler jokes that we actually have 6 kids because there's 3 crammed into Jake, he's not kidding. Jake is a ball of energy and enthusiasm and intensity, how's that for a description?! He is going places in life, and it's with or without me (let us not count the times he's been missing in these first five years please!). He is absolutely a fun kid and he has so much love inside of him that he can barely contain it - especially for Claire, he almost smothers her with his love. He loves life, he loves people, he loves adventure, he loves learning, he loves moving, and he loves himself! His self-esteem is through the roof as indicated by comments like, "Are you sad you can't sit by me?" to Nanna at the dinner table. Or, "Mom, are you going to miss me so much when I go to school?" (yes!) Jake is smart, confident and so friendly. He'll talk to just about anyone (went up to a high school kid in subway who was wearing a cast and asked what happened to his foot). He is a joy and the pulse of our family! And we would NOT be the same without him!!

Greens all around!

We are two days in and all is well! So far everyone has come home with great reports, or greens, as we call them. At school green means they had a great day, yellow means some trouble, red is big trouble. Each day their teachers put a mark on their calendars indicating how their day went. Daddy came home tonight, looked at their calendars and said, "hooray for green! My favorite color!"

Tomorrow is jakes birthday so I am going in to take cupcakes to his class, it will be fun to be there as a fly on the wall for a little while.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Back to school!

I say this often, and I shouldn't be surprised anymore about how quickly time flies and the kids grow up, but I can't believe the summer is over and all three kids are back in school. Catch that? All THREE kids are in school. Whoa. This is big this year!

Luke is a 3rd grader in Mrs. Barber's class. Ashley is a 2nd grader in Mrs. Bodnar's class. And Jake is an all-day kindergartener in Mrs. Rackle's class. We met them all last week and feel very lucky. It's going to be a great year!!

On our white board in the kitchen I wrote this week: Back To School! Use your smart minds, Use your kind hearts, Use your talented hands, Use your smiling faces!

As a mom it's bitter sweet sending the kids off after a fun summer. I hope I filled them up with all the love and encouragement and training they need to be happy and successful kids and students away from me. I get sentimental watching them put on their shiny new shoes and fresh backpacks and set off to tackle another year. I feel so happy for them getting back into their schedule and learning and their social little worlds... Chasing boys and girls at recess.

I must confess I'm happy for Claire and me, too! What will we do each day to busy ourselves?

Here's to another great year for all of us!