Winter Weather That Wouldn't End

Samantha: 92 Months, Week 3

Aedan: 58 Months, Week 2

Owen: 16 Months, Week 3

As I was going through pictures and videos, I realized that I didn't include these of the kids dancing in Samantha's room. They were too great not to share. I love seeing the three of them together, and I love watching Owen just stare at Samantha, copying anything she is doing, and looking up at her like she is the coolest person in the world. Now she has two little brothers that would rather be with her than anywhere else.

We got an ice storm over the weekend and our church ended up cancelling services that Sunday morning. Ben got a call early that morning, and it was definitely strange not going in to church that morning, especially because Ben and I were supposed to lead our elementary small groups.

Since we had more time than we expected that day, we decided to go over to Canada to participate in the Bon Soo Festival. They had all kinds of activities you could participate in for just $8. It was still doing some light freezing rain, and we didn't know we should have brought all their snow clothes, so when we got to the bum slide area, we mostly just walked around to see what was available to do. There was a coloring wall inside, a hay maze, plus this very large mound of snow that they carved slides down. We told the kids we would definitely come back another time so they could actually go down the slides.

Our main goal for the day was to go to the Bush Plane Museum. There was going to be a magician performing there, and you could get in with the same $8 pass, which is a great deal. The kids had been talking about wanting to go to the Bush Plane Museum, so we figured this would be a good time to go. There was a magic show starting right when we got there, so Samantha and Aedan sat down to watch the show while Ben, Owen, and I stood in line to order food for lunch. The kids loved watching the magic show, and Samantha's day was made when she was called on to be a volunteer in the magic show. She was so excited to go up in front of everyone and help with his trick. She did confess to the fact that it was gross putting the toilet paper in her mouth, and she also said that she figured out how he did the trick and saw the little plastic thing he had in his mouth that he was pulling all the paper out of. The video was really long, so I had to break it into smaller segments in order to upload it.

After the magic show was over and we finished our lunch, we wandered around the museum for about an hour before deciding everyone was tired and it was time to head home. We kept Owen awake in the car so that I could put him down for a real nap once we got back home.

Small group has been going well at our house, especially when we have a babysitter. Oftentimes, Owen will just hang out upstairs with us, which is really is okay with us as long as he's not being too distracting. That night, since it was the Super Bowl, we just invited everyone over to eat some good food, watch the football game, hang out, and let the kids play. It was a fun time. Owen has been really interested in little baby Arwen, and Telisa was a great sport in letting Owen "hold" her on his lap. These pictures are so precious because you could tell that he knew he had to be still and gentle. He was very interested in looking at her and touching her tummy, but then he was eager for Telisa to take her back after a few minutes.

We got more ice Sunday into Monday, so school was cancelled on Monday. With no school and nowhere to go, we had a relaxing morning of hanging out together. Here's Owen eating some scrambled eggs for breakfast that morning. He was cute, especially the last two with his little smile.

The kids decided to all wear their matching Mickey Mouse pajamas on Sunday night, which gave me a great photo opportunity on Monday morning. Samantha was sitting on the couch reading a book to Aedan, and when Owen was done eating breakfast, he joined them on the couch with a book as well. I love that Samantha sets such a good example in reading, and that her two brothers want to do the same. Samantha is always willing to share a book with someone. It was so nice to have this unexpected day off together. I love snow/ice days. :) (Sorry for all the pictures. They were too cute to choose just a couple.)

Campus was also closed that day, much to Ben's chagrin, and as you can probably tell in some of these pictures, Aedan was not feeling very well that morning. He had a bad cold, and he was complaining about his throat being sore. We didn't know what to believe since he just recently had strep throat. I didn't want to ignore him if he really was feeling bad. After taking these pictures, he was just sitting around crying and moaning, saying he wanted to go to the doctor and wanted medicine. With how much he was crying, I decided it probably would be a good idea to take him in to get checked, so Ben offered to take him. Poor Aedan was having such a rough winter with being sick. I feel like he's been sick since Thanksgiving with colds, coughs, an ear infection, strep throat, just so many things. I had escaped the cold that everyone else seemed to have until that Monday, probably from dealing with everyone else's snotty noses. Here's Aedan and Daddy waiting at the walk-in clinic.

Ben sent me all these pictures of Aedan, and I felt so bad for him. He looked miserable. In fact, as they waited inside the room for the doctor, he fell asleep cuddling with Daddy. He ended up taking a 20 minute nap while they waited. After getting all checked out, everything turned out clear. His ears and lungs were clear, and the rapid strep test came back negative, so he just had a bad cold that he had to ride out, and he was probably overtired from being up late the night before at our small group Super Bowl party.

We had Aedan take a nap that afternoon since he was feeling so crummy and was up past 9:30 the night before. He took a nice, long nap and was acting much more like himself when he woke up. He was just experiencing bad congestion and drainage down his throat. Samantha was too, but not as bad as Aedan. I was glad for the unexpected days home from school so that the kids could rest and try to get better.

It had been freezing rain all day, so I took some pictures outside our front window that night. You can see the ice formed on the branches of our bush and hanging down from our house. School ended up being cancelled again on Tuesday, which was probably a good thing because the street outside our house hadn't even been touched, and it was like an ice rink out there.

With school being cancelled again on Tuesday, I took advantage of the the kids being home that morning to go through the summer clothes from last year and have them try on shorts to see what still fits and how much more I need to look for to get ready for our trip to Florida. Aedan's shorts still fit him well, as they were a little big on him last summer. However, Samantha didn't fit in really any of hers, so I knew her and I would have to make a trip somewhere soon to look for shorts and more t-shirts.

That afternoon I let the kids watch a movie in the basement. They really enjoy watching movies together since we don't watch much TV usually, and I think they like watching movies in the basement because it's like their own little movie theater. They always sit right next to each other on the couch, all cuddled up under a blanket, and they get so excited about having this experience. Days off of school due to ice are a great excuse to spend time relaxing and staying warm.

Unfortunately, Owen did not take a very long nap that afternoon like I hoped he would, and the kids gymnastics lessons were still taking place that evening, so I suggested to Ben that we all go over to Canada together. Ben and I took turns following Owen around the community centre while Samantha and Aedan did gymnastics. Then, we ate dinner at Stackburger before going back to do the bum slide as a part of the Bon Soo winter carnival. We came prepared this time with all their snow gear and boots. We got everyone dressed inside the car so we could stay warm and not have to go inside the building. With the freezing rain that had come through over the past couple of days, the snow hill and the surrounding ground was very slippery. Owen could not really walk on his own without falling down a lot. Aedan had a hard time climbing up the slippery steps without help from Samantha or Ben. It was a little crazy going down an icy snow hill turned into slides, and there were a lot of people sliding all over the place. They said kids had to wear helmets, so we brought those along with us, too. I have to say that this was SO fun! I took Owen on a few slides with me and let him go down the smallest slide all by himself a few times, too. He was having a blast and just smiled from ear to ear. Samantha had no problem getting around on the ice and went down slide after slide, usually going to the very tallest and steepest ones. Aedan was a little more cautious and was apprehensive about going down on his own at first, but he enjoyed it a lot, too. Here are some videos of our time on the bum slides. The last video has Samantha sliding, then Aedan, then Owen and me. We could have all stayed longer, but it was a school night and it was getting late, so we decided to head back home. We would definitely do this again sometime. It was so fun for everyone.

After two ice days and a nice long weekend, it was back to school and work like usual on Wednesday. The boys and I went to the library in the morning, and Aedan did a great job making a bead necklace for his craft. The new librarian is coming up with some really fun different crafts that Aedan is really enjoying. He did an excellent job picking out his beads and putting them on symmetrically from the inside out. A little girl sitting next to him was looking for more pink heart beads, and he was even kind enough to give her all of the ones he had in his container. The librarian saw what a nice job he was doing sharing and gave him a coupon for a free movie rental because he was caught sharing. That coupon was such a huge deal to Aedan. He couldn't wait to pick out a special movie from free from the DVD section.

Owen was having a rough day that day at the library. He wasn't really happy playing with anything. I tried to hold him and include him in the game I was trying to play with Aedan, but he just wasn't having it that day. I told Aedan we were going to have to leave early because Owen was just throwing too many tantrums, and it was making it so I couldn't spend time with Aedan anyways.

With all of the snow and ice we have had, we have quite a lot in our back yard. It always blows toward our fence on the east side and is now so high that Izzy can just jump right over the fence. I was looking for her outside and noticed her on the other side of the fence in our neighbor's driveway. I called for her and she came right back over when I called her, but I don't want her to make a habit of jumping over the fence.

When we got home from the library, I noticed that yellow glob in the corner of Owen's eye. I took a picture of it before I wiped it away and asked one of my friend's who is a nurse if she thought it could be pink eye. I was trying to decide if I should make plans to take him into the walk-in clinic or not. Based on these pictures I sent her, she said it didn't look like pink eye, but could be a blocked duct, that it didn't look as angry as pink eye, and that I could put a warm compress on it and then keep an eye on how it looked as the day progressed.

I got Owen down for his nap, and he did not take a great nap again. When he woke up his eye looked even worse. It was all crusty and stuck closed, and he was not happy when I tried to clean or look at his eye. Here are a couple more pictures of what it looked like after his nap. Since my friend, Jill, works as the school nurse at Bahweting, I decided to stop in and talk to her while picking Samantha up from school. One look at Owen's eye and the following pictures, and she said it looked like he had pink eye and I should take him in. So our plans to take Aedan to hockey and then AWANA were changed because I had to take the van to take Owen to the doctor instead.

We didn't have to wait for too long, and really Owen was pretty happy just walking around and playing in the waiting room. The doctor confirmed that it was pink eye and sent us on our way with prescription eye drops to fill. I hoped that they would work quickly, that I wouldn't catch it from him, and that it wouldn't affect his sleep too much that night.

While Samantha and Aedan were at AWANA and Ben was out to dinner with Brooks, Owen and I hung out together at home, put laundry away, and I tried to get him down early that night. Here is Owen looking at Samantha's "Good Night Moon" book. He has seen her push on it to get the pages to work with the sound, so he is copying what he has seen her do. He really liked listening to the book, and I think he would enjoy one like this himself some day. He is really enjoying books and being read to a lot more lately.

After a couple rough days of not napping well and not feeling well, Owen slept really well on Wednesday night. In fact, he slept in until past 9:30, but we weren't in a rush to go anywhere, and I figured his body was probably sleeping for a reason, and I was glad he was getting some good rest after getting diagnosed with pink eye. Plus, it gave Aedan and I time to play together without Owen being around. That's one thing that's hard about Aedan going to preschool every afternoon. I don't have much, if any, one on one time with just Aedan like I used to have with Samantha in the afternoons when she would be home and Aedan was napping.

There was another winter storm coming through starting on Thursday afternoon, so Samantha was sent home from school at noon that day and Aedan's preschool was cancelled. We were under a blizzard warning, and it was just so crazy that school was cancelled again. Samantha only went to school a day and a half all week. Even campus closed early at 1:00. This winter has definitely been a bad one.

Aedan was really sad when I told him preschool was cancelled due to the weather, and he almost started crying. It was pajama day, and he had picked out his pajamas the night before and was so excited to wear them that day. He was really disappointed, but I promised him that I was sure they would do it on another day.

Some days I like to just sit and watch my kids play. Thursday morning was one of those days. Aedan was just laying on the floor, playing with his Legos, as he does every day, and I was just struck with how big he is getting. He has definitely gotten taller and thinned out a lot, and now he looks less like a little boy and more like a kindergartner.

Here are Samantha, Aedan, and Izzy snuggled up watching a movie in the basement that blizzardy afternoon.

The blizzard conditions continued into Friday, so school was cancelled yet again. The snow was blowing pretty hard, and it was pretty much white out type conditions. 

Since Ben didn't have to be at campus for any reason, I took advantage of him being around the house to actually spend the day cleaning. I have done maintenance things, but not an overall cleaning since before Christmas. I'm not a big fan of cleaning, and sometimes I wish we had a smaller house so I had less to clean. I felt kind of grumpy that day, but I'm sure it was because Owen was up for 2 hours in the middle of the night. He had a super stuffy nose with lots of crusty boogers, so I'm guessing that's why he was up crying. Ben and I were both in there with him, but he wasn't staying asleep when we laid him down, so eventually I had a talk with him instead of picking him up. I told him he needed to stop screaming because it was going to wake up Samantha and Aedan, and that he needed to go to bed. After thrashing around in his crib and crying some more, he eventually calmed down and I was able to just leave my hand on him and he finally fell asleep, sleeping through the rest of the night.

Since we had been cooped up much of the week with the ice and snow, on Saturday we decided to go to this indoor play place called Fun Farm over in Canada so the kids could run around and play and get out of the house. There were a couple inflatables and some other climbing structures, along with Cozy Coups and a room of toys for younger kids. The kids had a fun time there, and we will definitely have to go again sometime. It also would be an excellent place for a MOPS play date. Before coming back home, we decided to stop and eat lunch at an Italian restaurant. The food was really good, and Samantha really enjoyed it, in particular, making a lot of comments about how it was the best food ever. :)

Finally, that night we had a family from church over for dinner. They have a girl Samantha's age and a boy a little older than Aedan. It was really fun to see the kids playing together so well, and we really enjoyed getting to know the parents. It's fun to be able to open our home to get to know other people. We had good conversation, and I could definitely see our families getting together more often in the future, especially since Samantha and Savannah are such good friends. We had a fun family Saturday, and it was so nice to be together.

(Blog about February 3-9, 2019)

Super Hero Boys and a Normal Week at Home

Samantha: 92 Months, Week 2
Aedan: 58 Months, Week 1
Owen: 16 Months, Week 2

This week started off with more cold winter weather. The wind chills for Monday morning were supposed to be -50, so they cancelled school that day so no one would have to be out in the cold weather. It was fun to have an unexpected day home from school for the kids, and we were glad to have a warm house to stay in that day. In fact, Ben's classes got cancelled that day as well so that the students didn't have to walk back and forth in those freezing temperatures. This  U.P. winter weather is sometimes pretty crazy.

We had been looking for a time when Emma could come over and have a play date with Samantha. Since we had an unexpected Monday off, we invited their whole family over that morning. Emma brought her American Girl doll and horse over to play with Samantha, and Eli was pretty good at humoring Aedan and Owen, giving them attention as well. Ben and I were able to spend time talking to Chad and Denise, and it was fun to have this time to get together at the beginning of the week. They even stayed for lunch, and then Emma stayed for most of the afternoon to play. We even played Ticket to Ride with the kids. Samantha and Aedan had never played it before, and it was a little above Aedan's head, but Samantha really liked it. We definitely need to start teaching her more card games and board games like that because she's getting old enough to understand how to play more complicated games. It was a fun day of spending time indoors with friends and family while it was freezing outside.

Even though there was no school, our MOPS Leadership Team meeting was still on for that night. We met at the Palace for some Mexican food before going back to Deb's house for our meeting. We talked a lot about the rest of the year's meetings, what things have been going well or not, as well as what leadership might look like for next year. It's been different getting used to not having Jill around. I have decided that I will continue on as the MOPS Kids' Coordinator, since I have taken over all the childcare responsibilities throughout the last couple months. Now we just need to figure out how to recruit more helpers so that we are not scrambling around at the last minute as much.

Ben was in charge of the kids that Monday night since I was gone, and Owen was giving him a hard time going to sleep, just like he did on Sunday night. He ended up having to go in four times before he finally stayed asleep.

On Tuesday morning we had MOPS Bible Study, but since that didn't start until 10:30, we had time around the house before we had to go anywhere. Aedan and Owen were playing with super hero figures for awhile, and the first video is Owen trying to get Spider-Man to stand up on the floor. Aedan decided that he wanted to dress-up, and I suggested that he give some things to Owen so he could dress up as a super hero, too. Owen had never really dressed up with Aedan before, but he was loving it. The boys loved being able to see themselves in the pictures, too.

In this video, Aedan wanted me to take a video of him saying, "Avengers Assemble!" One thing I have been struck with lately now that I have been home with Aedan and Owen, and especially with Aedan's interests developing more towards super heroes and Legos and Owen following right behind, I feel like I have definitely been in "boy mom" territory for quite some time. No more playing dolls, tea party, and puzzles. Now we are flying around like super heroes, fighting bad guys, and building vehicles that can transport all this super hero Legos. It's different, but it's tons of fun.

We had Bible Study at church that morning, and it had been quite some time since we met last. It's always a good discussion that comes from our video about parenting, and we talked some about spoiling kids, doing chores around the house, teaching them financial responsibility at a young age, as well as being on the same page as your husband when it comes to discipline and expectations for the children. Every week there is so much content that it is hard to get through, and it often makes me want to sit down and go through this video series with Ben so we can talk over these things together.

On the way back home, when we were only a couple minutes away from church, Aedan said, "I'm going to go to the bathroom when we get home," in a very nonchalant voice. Well then a minute later he is making a noise, and then says, "I can't hold it anymore. It's already all coming out!" He literally peed all over himself and the car seat on the way home. I was so frustrated because other than his flippant comment, he never even told me he had to go. I usually just let him tell me when he has to go, but I try to make him go potty before we leave for places because sometimes he will hold it all morning long. Well, that must be what he did that morning, and once he got in the cold car and sat down, he couldn't hold it anymore. I got pretty upset that he didn't say anything to me because it would have cost less time to just take him back into the church to go to the bathroom than it would have to then go home, shower Aedan, and clean the whole car seat off. We were in a hurry to get home so we could eat lunch and get him to preschool on time, which of course didn't happen then. Aedan has never done anything like that, and it really surprised me. He must have really been holding it for a long time.

Once I got back home and got Owen down for a nap, I got some time to myself. I am trying to get caught back up on my blog because Christmas travels got me behind and I'm still not back to where I should be. I don't like being behind because it's harder to write about things that happened several weeks ago, and it takes up too much of my time. I was able to take my computer with me to gymnastics lessons that evening and work on it a little more there because I figured out how to get on their Wifi. It's always enjoyable taking them to gymnastics because they love it so much, and we get a free hour to ourselves as we sit outside the gym and wait for them.

Wednesday was our typical routine of going to story time. The new librarian is doing a great job organizing stories and crafts, and Aedan always loves going. Owen has been a little trickier lately and sometimes isn't too happy about staying around the library for too long, but it's a good weekly outing, regardless.

That evening while Samantha and Aedan were at AWANA, my friend Linda came over to our house to go over the Young Living essential oil starter kit that arrived in the mail a couple days before that. She talked about what the different oils could be used for, and she brought a whole bunch of supplies to help me start out. I was very grateful for her expertise, and even though I still feel somewhat skeptical, and I am definitely interested to see what essential oils could do for us. I know some people swear by them and the benefits they have seen in their health. The biggest reason I was interested in them was for something to help boost our immunity in these long winter months. I feel like we have all been stuffed up with colds on and off since before Christmas. Linda helped me make an immunity roller, a pillow spray, and a roller to help Ben sleep, as well as Thieves cleaning spray. I really like the idea of using this stuff, and I have been slowly switching our household over to natural products for cleaning and for personal care and cosmetics. I am definitely open to trying things that are better for us. I even got the "free" trial kit from Grove Collaborative where you get a whole bunch of free stuff if you spend $20. I figured it doesn't hurt to try, and especially if it's not too cost prohibitive, I would much rather use products or make things that I don't have to worry about having toxic chemicals in it.

That night Ben took Aedan to hockey practice, since it was cancelled on Monday. Samantha went along with them so he could just take them both straight to AWANA, and he sent me this video of Aedan. He said he was actually trying that night. He was falling down a lot, but he was actually skating with both feet. He has definitely improved so much from the little boy at the beginning of the year who couldn't even remember how to stand up on the ice. We are proud of how far he has come!

Thursday was our weekly grocery shopping trip, which is always tons of fun. Owen has been a little more difficult to go shopping with lately because he gets antsy being trapped in the cart, especially when we are checking out. By the time we get to the store, get all our groceries, which most of the time fill up the entire inside of the cart, check out, ride Sandy, get back home, unload the groceries, and put everything away, I feel pretty exhausted. That day it was so cold outside that the back of the van was frozen shut, too. I tried chipping the ice off, and another man in the parking lot saw me struggling and offered to come over and help me, but it still wouldn't open, so I just had to pile all the groceries on the inside of the van instead. I consider shopping my workout on those days. :)

After having lunch, getting Aedan to preschool, and putting Owen down for his nap, I started on my next project of going through pictures to make a new calendar. I didn't have a calendar starting in February, and I had been writing down appointments and things on sticky notes or random places and knew I would start forgetting things soon if I didn't get a calendar ordered. I like making my picture calendars because it's fun to look back at the old pictures for each month. Plus, when we are done with the calendar, I take it apart and place it in a binder so I am in essence making photo books at the same time. It takes a lot of time to go through pictures and choose the best ones, so I knew this project would take some time.

When Ben went to school to pick up Samantha, she told him that she wasn't feeling well, but it didn't start until the end of the day, so she didn't think she needed to tell her teachers. When she got home, we took her temperature and it was 100.3, so not quite a fever. However, she was not acting like she felt well, just generally sitting on the couch and acting like she didn't have much energy. She was supposed to have a half day on Friday anyways, so we decided to let her stay home if she wanted to, and she thought that was a good idea.

It was a fairly busy day for me on Friday because I had to take Aedan (and Owen) to an appointment to get his new car seat on Friday morning through the KARS program. We were able to get a combination car seat for $20, and I hoped it would work better for him to use a seat belt, be more secure, and have it be a more comfortable seat than the one we had from Samantha. Samantha hung out with Ben in his office while we were at the appointment. Then, once we got back home, Samantha and Aedan had fun playing together. They have really been enjoying each other a lot lately, and they love when they have these extra, extended periods of time to play.

I wanted to bring meals to Sam and Telisa who just had babies, since I know how much meals meant to me when I had new babies. So after dropping Aedan off at preschool and getting Owen down for a nap, I got to work on their meals. I made brownies, salad, and pizza pasta casserole. Ben had made arrangements with Mary to babysit our kids on Friday night so we could go on a date. However, he went to pick Aedan up from preschool and couldn't get back home because all the streets were blocked off from the snowmobile parade through town. I still had to get the meals dropped off for Sam and Telisa, too, so things were a little rushed getting all those things taken care of.

We decided to go over to Canada for our date, and there was a long line to get over the bridge, cutting into our date time even more, but luckily, there was no one at the barbecue restaurant, Low and Slow. We got the barbecue platter and got to taste lots of yummy meat, and mostly had the restaurant to ourselves. It was great to just sit and talk about how things have been going, our future, and where we see ourselves as we look ahead in our lives. We got back just before bedtime, which was nice, but it still isn't fun having to get home and then still get everyone to bed. I told Ben that the next date we go on, we need to let the babysitter put our kids to bed so we can come home to that job already being done. The hard part is whether or not Owen would let someone different put him to bed and have us feel confident that he wouldn't give them a hard time. Even so, that night Owen woke up screaming and crying three times. I know he has teeth coming in, and I gave him medicine before bed and rubbed some Copaiba oils on his gums that is supposed to help with that sort of thing. Eventually, when I went into his room again after midnight, I held him for a long time. He has preferred to be held sideways, with his head in the crook of my elbow, facing me like he's nursing, and he fell asleep like that. However, he woke up as soon as I laid him down. Instead of picking him back up again, I decided to talk to him. He understands what we are saying, and he knew he was supposed to be asleep, not screaming and crying in his bed. I told him that that was enough, and that he was waking everyone up by screaming and crying. I told him that we had already held him enough, and it was time to just lay down and go to sleep. He was thrashing around in his bed for awhile and crying, since I wasn't picking him up, but eventually he calmed down, and I left my hand on his back until he fell fast asleep. After that, we didn't hear any more from him the rest of the night. I was glad that my talking to him seemed to work, and I thought that maybe we need to try that with him more often. He's not a little baby anymore, he understands a lot of what we say, and especially when Ben and I have both been in his room and gotten him to sleep in our arms, but he wakes up crying and screaming shortly after laying him down, there's no point in us going back in his room over and over and doing the same thing.

Here are some papers Aedan brought home from school on Friday.

He's been on an Incredibles kick lately, so it was fun to see him color this picture. He is getting so much better with his fine motor skills. He's even staying inside the lines so well.

These next two papers were probably my favorite ones to look at, just to see the progression of how he has written his name from the beginning of January until now. I love how he writes his initials as "ATA." The last couple times he wrote his name, he did such a good job of writing his letters smaller, staying in the lines, and having much more control over the marker and how it writes.

Saturday morning we took advantage of our chance to sleep in since Samantha and Aedan will just get up and play with each other and let us be. In fact, that morning, Ben and I were able to sleep in until about 8:40, which is amazing to me. I'm glad Owen chooses to sleep in like this on Saturdays. It is a welcome relief to Ben and me, and we will take it whenever we can, especially from that little boy who was such a terrible sleeper for so long.

After just relaxing at home for most of the morning, I decided to take Samantha and Aedan tubing that afternoon after putting Owen down for his nap. Ben was not feeling great, as he seemed to have caught the cold/stuffy nose bug that the kids had been passing around for a week or so, so I was glad to take the kids out of the house for awhile for him. It was finally "warm enough" to spend some time outside, and I was looking forward to spending time with the big kids. It was pretty busy at the tubing hill, and I had a few issues with the kids not listening or Samantha talking back or Aedan not wanting to walk, but once I gave them each a time out, making them sit out for one of the runs down the hill, they finally got the point that I wasn't playing around and that there were consequences for their actions. (I have been really trying to check myself when I start feeling frustrated, trying to keep myself calmed down and not exploding at things when the kids get under my skin or act disrespectful. I have found myself closing my eyes and taking many deep breaths lately, trying to collect myself and think about how to respond before I say or do something that I would regret later.) Anyways, after getting over the beginning hiccups, we had a blast on the tubing hill that day. I think we went down every single tubing run. It's too hard to get videos or pictures, but here we are going up the hill on the tubes. We were there for close to two hours, and it was definitely a fun way to spend our Saturday afternoon. We will be back again, I'm sure. :)

(Blog about January 27-February 2, 2019)

Winter in the U.P.

Samantha: 92 Months, Week 1

Aedan: 57 Months, Week 4

Owen: 16 Months, Week 1

After Aedan's diagnosis of strep on Saturday afternoon, we knew he would have to stay home from church on Sunday to keep his germs to himself. Ben and I decided to take turns going to church, so I stayed home with Aedan during the first service while Ben took Samantha and Owen to church, and then I went to church for the second service. For a kid that had strep throat and a rash all over his body, he really was in pretty good spirits. He seemed to be doing better and had more of an appetite, which was good.

Samantha wanted me to take a picture of her holding this little pink heart necklace that my grandma had given her awhile back. I like the picture because you can see her cute little layered hair cut and her face that is looking so much more grown up these days. Where did my little girl go that used to have tea parties with her stuffed animals and want to act out Frozen every night? Sometimes I wish I could rewind and relive just one of those days with her. Some days I miss when it was just her, and I spent so much time planning our days and activities together. Now that she's in school, the days and weeks go by so fast, and I miss having her around.

With how cold it was outside, I decided to dress Owen in this cute little sweater with a collared shirt underneath and corduroy pants. He just looked so handsome that I had to get a few pictures of him after church.

Now that we have Owen's bookshelf moved out of the living room, I have done a little rearranging in the living room. I decided to move this end table back upstairs and placed the black chair next to it, giving us another seating area, and a great place to sit and read a book. Samantha has definitely been enjoying sitting there to read in the afternoons.

While Samantha was reading her book, I enjoyed sitting next to Aedan on the couch, reading him some books, and enjoying some warm sunshine. I love his smile in this picture, and his cute little haircut.

With Aedan still recovering, we decided to just cancel small group for that Sunday, and it was kind of nice having extra time to just hang out and be together without having to worry about getting the house picked up and dinner ready for our group. Samantha and Aedan loved having more time to play, and they even worked on this puzzle together.

We've been talking a lot about our trip to Florida and Disney World, so after dinner that night we decided to pull up pictures and videos from our last trip down there two summers ago. The kids had fun remembering the things we did there and talking about what things we would do again. We are all really looking forward to this trip.

As I was getting Owen ready for bed that night, he was feeling warm, so I took his temperature, and he had a 101.1 under his arm. I felt nervous that maybe he had caught some of Aedan's germs. I just so wished that we could all get feeling better. I felt like the kids just kept getting sick, and it made me think that I am doing something wrong and not keeping germs cleaned up enough or something. Winter, and the germs that come along with it, are always challenging. (And I am so over both of those things.)

Even though Owen had a rough nap time and woke up crying one time after putting him down, after that he slept fine, which I was glad for. Since Aedan was still in his period of recovering from step throat and not being around other kids, and Owen had the fever on Sunday night, we had a pretty laid back day on Monday. Aedan didn't have preschool that afternoon anyways, so he didn't have to worry about missing any fun at school. Aedan and I built Legos together all morning, and we finally accomplished the task of rebuilding all his Lego sets. He was proud of all we had done together and kept talking about how fun it was to sit there and do that with me. Then, we put all his extra Legos in the play mat/storage bag we got for his Legos. It was a really fun way to spend our morning. Sometimes sick days or snow days are a welcome relief, giving us more time to just spend at home together.

Normally Monday would be a hockey night, but Aedan didn't go because of getting sick. I found these videos that Ben took last week at hockey practice and decided to just include them on this blog post. You can see Aedan practicing his drills, and even though he is still mostly using his right foot, he is gaining more confidence, and occasionally remembers to use both feet. We only have a month left of hockey, and in many ways Ben and I are glad. It's been hard having hockey two nights a week, and really just deciding to do one night a week, but then feeling bad that he was getting farther behind because of that. It's from 5:30-6:20, and that time of night is just really hard for us because it's right at dinnertime, meaning we have been eating dinner really early, and that means Aedan comes home from preschool and has only 15 minutes or so of time to play before it's time to eat and go off to another activity. Then, by the time we get home, it's almost bedtime. With hockey on Monday, gymnastics on Tuesdays, and AWANA on Wednesdays, our weeks just fly by sometimes, and we don't like it that way. I don't know if it's just an inevitable result of having kids in activities, or what, but I think what made it worse is that Aedan was never too thrilled about going and it has been difficult to get him to want to try harder. This may be his only stint at playing hockey. I just don't know if Ben and I can handle the commitment it takes to have a hockey player. Plus, I'm not sure how interested he really is in it. I'm glad we had him try it, and that we made him stick with it, but I don't see hockey as a future sport for him.

That evening after dinner we started the kids on quick baths before Ben headed out to his board meeting. I got all the kids ready for bed and we were doing pretty well, when I sent Samantha into her room to wait for me, and then I heard a loud crash. Owen was being silly, spinning around in Samantha's room, and he fell and broke her horse fence. I felt frustrated, got upset, and yelled, more than I should have. I just wanted to get the kids to bed, and then Owen was giving me a hard time. He didn't fall asleep with me, so I laid him down and then he just started screaming and crying for awhile. Since Ben was gone at his meeting, I knew he wouldn't be back to help me, so I waited for awhile and tried to get some patience before going back into his room, but then he actually stopped crying on his own, which I was glad for, it just took awhile. I'm glad that Owen is finally figuring out how to do that on some occasions.

Tuesday morning was a MOPS morning, and it felt weird not going to set-up Monday because of the boys still recovering from being sick. Sam came by to get the bins, and the others on Leadership got everything set up for me. It was a smaller group again that morning, but we had some good conversation about health and exercise, with a really good presentation from a fellow mom who helps run a local gym. We had pretty good conversation at our table. I was able to hold another mom's baby for awhile and got her to sleep in my arms, and everything went pretty well. After getting everything put away, I took the boys to Wendy's for lunch because Aedan had been asking to go, and I promised we would go the next time we had MOPS. A few other other moms decided to join us as well, so that was fun. We got out of the church later than normal because of a discussion about leadership for next year, so lunch ran over when Aedan was supposed to be at preschool, but there wasn't really much we could do about that at that point.

After dropping Aedan off at preschool and getting Owen back home and down for a nap, the rest of the day went on like normal Tuesdays. It was Ben's turn to take the kids to gymnastics that night, so Owen and I hung out at home and got dinner ready for when they got back home. After dinner we had Samantha record this video talking about the Girl Scout cookies that she would be selling. I figured it would be a good way to get the word out and for Ben to play in his classes to see if any of his students would be interested in buying cookies. Her video was so cute, and I love the little voice she started talking in, as well as how eloquently she explained the cookies, how much they cost, and how people could order. I'm so proud of our little girl and how she is growing up, but I have to admit, that it sometimes tugs on my heartstrings a little bit too much. Man, do I love her so much.

Here is a paper Aedan brought home from school that Tuesday. I like seeing what he's working on at school, and he was really doing a nice job practicing his letters. 

On Wednesday morning, Owen slept in a little bit, giving me a chance to go through papers on our counter, as well as the organizer on the wall and on the kitchen counter. Our papers to file and bills were getting out of control and needed to be filed away. It felt good to have everything put where it was supposed to be and only necessary things left out. I haven't been doing a good job of following the 30 minutes a day of organizing and decluttering. However, any little bit here and there helps. I just have to remind myself that it's not just an all or nothing type deal.

I took the boys to story time at the library, we went to the bank, went back home for lunch, and then dropped Aedan off at preschool. After I got Owen down for his nap, I spent about an hour tidying up the house because there were just a lot of things not put away, toys out, and things left out. I stuffed Owen's diapers, posted something online to try and sell, and proofread a paper of Ben's, and then Owen started waking up from his nap soon after that. It's amazing how fast nap time can go by. Plus, he's been taking shorter naps lately, sometimes not even making it an hour and a half, so that doesn't leave me a lot of downtime to get things done around the house.

As the day progressed we got more snow. Here's a video of me pulling up in the street right in front of our house as the big snowflakes fall down from the sky. Sometimes snow is pretty still, but do you see the large piles of snow already surrounding us? And there's more to come still. Aedan keeps talking every day about how he's excited about going to Florida so we can get out of the cold and the snow. I definitely agree with him on that.

As I was driving to pick up Samantha and Aedan from school, I took this picture while I was stopped at a stop sign. The snow is piled up so high on the sides of the roads. Sometimes it's hard to see around the corner, or to see if anyone is coming through an intersection.

Here's what our back yard looked like that night around dinnertime.

After dropping Samantha and Aedan off at AWANA, Ben, Owen, and I went over to church for a youth group talent show fundraiser for their trip to Spring Hill. We donated some money, enjoyed some good desserts, and Owen had fun just wandering around for awhile before we decided it was time to get him home and to bed.

This was a very average week with normal activities, and I didn't take as many pictures. Thursday was another normal day of going grocery shopping with the boys, which really is not usually that bad, just something that has to be one. However, Owen had trouble napping again that afternoon, as he has for most of the week, which was rather exhausting for me. He only slept for forty-five minutes that afternoon, waking up as soon as I sat down. However, luckily, he went back to sleep without needing me to go into his room, which I was grateful for.

Samantha had Girl Scouts after school on Thursday, so Ben went to pick up Aedan because he had to drop off a couple things around town. Aedan was really tired that afternoon, as he often is the day after staying out late at AWANA on Wednesday night. Ben told him it was okay if he wanted to close his eyes for a while, so here he is taking a little after snooze in the car. Aedan gets pretty tired out, and I think some days he really just needs a little bit of a nap to help him get through the rest of the day.

Friday morning the boys and I were invited to our neighbors' house to play. Aedan and Bridget had fun playing and looking at a book and laughing hysterically. They eventually made their way upstairs as well and Aedan found Legos, which he can't get enough of lately. Owen and Carly just wandered around being toddlers, eating snacks, and going down the little slide they had indoors. Valerie and I enjoyed talking with each other and catching up after it has been awhile since we have gotten together. It's nice to have friends that live right around the corner that are easy to talk to and hang out with.

Since Owen slept in pretty late that morning, probably because he didn't nap much that week, I decided to keep him up that afternoon a little longer. Ben and I had conferences at Samantha's school to go to, and a mentor mom from MOPS volunteered to come over and watch Samantha and Owen while we went for the conferences. I was going to put Owen down early, but decided he would be okay being awake for a little longer, especially since we had plans to stay out later for a hockey game that night.

We spent a few minutes talking with Ms. Allison, and of course, she had nothing but good things to say about Samantha. She is excelling, her MAP scores were great, and we got a good report about how she is doing socially (which I sometimes worry about because I don't know who she is close friends with, and she will often talk about how she plays by herself at recess). After that we met with Ms. Rogers, the Gifted and Talented teacher, to sign paperwork confirming our decision to place her in the program. I'm not exactly sure what changed from the last time we met when they were pushing back against allowing her in the program, but we were glad things were finally progressing. It may have had to do with her high MAP scores, but regardless, we are excited about her being able to participate in this program and get some extra enrichment. It's so nice that Bahweting has the resources to provide extra support for kids on the upper end of the spectrum as well.

Ben had somewhere to be that Friday afternoon, so I let Samantha stay home while Owen napped that afternoon while I went to pick up Aedan from preschool. Then, as we waited for Daddy to return, Samantha and Aedan pretended like they were performing on a talent show, and here are some videos I took of them. I think Samantha was going to perform and Aedan was the judge. (The kids have watched some America's Got Talent lately. I just recently introduced them to it because I thought they would find it interesting.) Right before this they were all dancing, but once I started the video, they stopped performing for me. Regardless, they were having a fun time being creative, performing, and using their imaginations.

After eating tacos at home, we headed over to the Lakers hockey game. We hadn't been to one for awhile, and the kids were pretty excited. They were giving away these white shirts, and even though they were pretty big, Samantha and Aedan put theirs on right away. Even though Owen had a better nap that afternoon, he didn't make it too long that night. He just wanted to walk around and climb the steps, and he got mad when we trapped him in, so I ended up taking him back home close to the end of the second period. Ben stayed with Samantha and Aedan so they could enjoy more of the game without having to worry about Owen being distracting and throwing fits. I'm sure they had a fun time getting to hang out with just Daddy. Here are some pictures and videos from the game that night.

This weekend was bringing super cold air, also known as the polar vortex. We were trying to find something we could do to get the kids out of the house on Saturday without being outside. I had heard of several families going swimming at a local hotel pool. I heard that the water was really warm, and it was a fun place to take kids swimming, so we decided to try that out on Saturday morning. The water was definitely very nice, and the kids had a blast swimming around. We took a little snack break in the middle when Owen was getting cranky, and then we were able to enjoy some more time in the pool after that. It is definitely something that we will try again, and next time we will bring more toys for the kids to play with. Also, we need to get Aedan his own swim goggles. He tried Samantha's on one time, and he thought it was amazing that he could see under the water. In fact, he just kept plugging his nose and dunking himself under water without gasping for air when he comes back up, like he usually does. He was really sad when he had to take the goggles off, and I'd never seen him as comfortable with going under water as he was that day.

When we got home from swimming and ate a quick lunch, I decided to just stick all the kids in the bath at the same time to get them rinsed off and clean from swimming. They had never taken a bath all at the same time, mostly because our bath tub isn't big enough for all of them, but they were having a blast playing and being silly together. It made my heart happy to just sit there and watch them interact with each other. These three kids keep us busy, but bring us so much joy.

After Owen woke up from his nap that afternoon, we went out to the Lawson's house in Brimley for a dinner with other K-5 helpers at church. There were some fun people there. We had great food, good conversation, and the kids all had fun playing. They were very respectful, and we were glad that we can take the kids out to do things like that and have it be a successful experience. It was a nice way to end a good family day together.

(Blog about January 20-26, 2019)