Ready for Pinterest?

It has been a good couple of weeks around the Hillstead house. Life is busy and bustling as usual - especially around the 7-9am and 4-8pm hours. But in between there is a lot of Claire and me time where I can regroup, reorganize and rejuvenate! Thank goodness (I don't know how home-school moms do it).

Things to note about life during this first month of 2012 are:

1- We started a new program of no electronics (TV, Wii, Computer, Ipad...) Monday mornings to Friday afternoons. The temptation for my kids to always go to those things in their free-time has weighed on me since Luke was a baby and loved Baby Einstein. So I've fought it back and forth for years in different ways, ideas, programs... but this one is working! The benefits have been immediate and obvious:
- The kids are sleeping in later
- The kids are pulling out old toys
- The kids are hanging around me in the kitchen more, coloring, talking, driving me nuts playing tag and other games around the island..
- The kids are getting their homework done before the Thursday night crunch
- I have read 2 books
- We have been practicing the piano right when we wake up and before Claire gets out of bed so she doesn't stand there by us and want to bang on the keys
- The boys go outside all afternoon to shoot hoops, roller-blade, play football, ride bikes
- Ashley's had her nose in a book every afternoon
- We play with friends more
- We see more of each other and interact on a deeper level all week

So that has been huge for our family. Tyler comes home at night and often says he's proud of my diligence with this. It seems easier to tell two energetic boys to go downstairs and play Mario Cart while I make dinner than to pull out puzzles or paints for them. But it's not really, I'm finding. So that's really good.

2 - I've been trying to revisit my crafty side. I don't have a pinterest account, but Ali talked me in to trying it out this week. I'm scared I'll get overwhelmed with all the creative ideas. But I did request an invitation. I'm making some wooden letter boards for Brynn for her birthday and I also made a little something special out of an idea in my head, my Family Valentine's Mailbox. Go ahead, you can Pin it. ;) The kids are loving leaving treats and notes for each other.


3 - We are working on some projects around the house. Our pool gate is rusting and gross so we need to replace that and we want to extend the grassy area for the kids to play in the back yard. Our garage door chain broke this week so we've been opening and closing it manually - I like to think of it as my daily exercise - so that's going to cost some $ to fix. Annoying. I accidentally broke and then replaced and fixed by myself a part on the pool pump this week, so I felt good about that. Handy woman. Hopefully we can do a lot of these things ourselves.

4 - Things are changing at work for Tyler. Lots of shifting in positions and responsibilities going on there. So he is staying really busy and fortunately has a good group of people he works with. We liked what Obama said in his State of the Union Address last night about using, growing and building U.S. clean energy companies - go solar people! :)

5 - We are counting the days to our 12 year anniversary (Feb.24th) and trying to decided what to do for a fun weekend getaway. Vegas or Scottsdale probably - Ty's in charge - and I don't really mind where we are as long as the bed is comfy, the blinds shut tight and we can sleep in peace until 10am. :) In March we have the Hillstead Couples' cruise celebrating Steve and Shauna's 40th Wedding Anniversary. What a blast it will be to have all of us kids-free together for a week. We owe a big thanks to my mom who is going to be holding down the fort here with our and Ali's kids. yikes.

6 - Ashley is selling girl scout cookies for the next couple weeks. If you have a craving, let us know. $4/box of the good stuff. And she's the cutest little girl scout I know.


So that's what's on my mind and plate this time of year. Fun post.

With this lovely photo of Claire's chunky thighs, I bid you good-bye my friends!

Go Seahawks!

Luke is playing flag football now with a bunch of buddies from the neighborhood. He loves it! On the mornings he has practice (M/F) it's the first thing he talks about. We are grateful that another mom and I were able to throw this team together last minute, and since she grew up in Washington too, we chose to be the Seahawks! I guess a couple of their classmates are on a really good team, the AZ Cardinals, and Luke is anxiously anticipating the day we play them! Go Seahawks!

Let's go Stealers!

Jake started playing basketball a few weeks ago. He has improved so quickly with dribbling and shooting, it's incredible. I'd say he has a new passion for "hoops"! In his free-time he will go down to the basement to play on our mini-shot or ask if he can go out front and shoot hoops. It is pretty great.

Both this week and last Jake scored a basket. It's pretty tough on these 5 year olds to score when they stand so LOW under the rim, it takes a lot of effort and determination.

During the games Jake is pretty focused but does manage to pose for photos. ;) He also insists that we not take our eyes off him, but asks that we do not cheer for him at all either. What a funny kid.

Skateland

What's a better way to kick off the new year than with a couple trips to Skateland?! I can think of a few, actually. But since it had been a good decade since our last trip out to the skate-rink, we thought we'd introduce it to the kids. And we had fun.

Luke loved using his new Christmas roller-blades and, after a few times around on the carpet area, Ashley announced that she had a new favorite sport! Jake put up with the wheels and did his best to get around using the walker, but he opted not to get skates on our second visit, the next weekend. Not his thing right now. Claire was completely feeling it now that she can walk on her own. She cruised around the place (on shoes)and thought the loud music and disco ball lights were fantasic! Tyler dressed for the occasion in his bright red and blue and broke the place down, racing Luke and playing the dice game, where everyone rushes to get under a number 1-6 when the music stops and hopes the DJ doesn't roll their number on the big furry dice or they're out. It was all very entertaining to watch from my perch at the wall.

Fun times.

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HALLELUJAH! It's a miracle! The COX guy just left after installing their internet service and look at this! I managed to upload 5 pictures all together in less than 30 seconds. Bloggers, I'm back. Enjoy these miscellaneous photos from 2007.

Christmas at Grandma Goesch's House

Highlights from Christmas 2011