Chicago One

Mike has a 3 part leadership training in Chicago- One at the end of March, one at the end of April and one the end of June. We've decided that I'll go a long and we'll take one kid with us each time.

Emery and Kate go first....

I was looking forward to our flight. I figured Kate would sleep the whole time and we could settle in and watch a movie. Nope, Kate wouldn't sleep and was so weirdly tired and out of control. Horrible flight. When we arrived we got settled into our room and walked up the busy Chicago street to eat at "Marqs." It was so good. Then I we went back to the hotel and I put Kate down and got my quiet TV time while Mike swam with Emery.  She got a mermaid tail for her birthday, so we brought it along. We did ALOT of swimming in the hotel this trip.

The next morning we swam for a bit and then walked down to this little sandwich/coffee shop and got us these donuts to share while Kate took her nap.

It was a tad cold, but we ventured out to the famous silver bean and then over to the Maggy Daily children's park to play

We were on our own during the day and then Mike joined us in the evening. Of course we got us some Chicago style pizza. It's deliciuos!

We went to the Willis tower, formally known as the Sears tower, where you take the elevator to the top and can step out over the city on these glass windows

It's a pretty quick trip. We get in Monday night and head home Wednesday night. 

Saying goodbye to our hotel isn't bad, cuz I know I'll be back.

Until next time!

MARCH

In March we celebrate the birth of Mr. Ivan Michael and Mrs. Emery Sharon. We are happy they are in our family because.....

IVAN-  STILL eats and sleeps football, however we have him playing soccer. This will be our last year and then in the fall we are letting him try tackle football. He is beside himself. Besides sports he is smart and does well in school. He is so sweet with Kate and loves every little move she makes. He woke up crying one night, because he dreamt that she fell down the stairs and died. Even after he woke it was hard to get him to stop crying about it.

He's pretty sensitive that way. One night we stayed over at my mother in laws and he slept with grandma and she got snoring pretty good and pretty loud and he came down, in tears, to get us because he thought something was wrong with her. 

He got to go to one of the Jazz play off games with Mike.

  He's pretty reliable. We leave Kate with him and he's such a good babysitter. He loves playtime. Everytime we have something to do he ask's, "will I still have time to play?" Or he's calculating how much playtime he'll have each day. He just loves the freedom that comes with it and I love that he loves it and that he gets plenty off it. He's reliable. He comes home everyday after school and reads for 20 min, does math for 20 min and then poops for 20 min. Yes, he'll be mad I put this here, but he does those three things just as I said. He's smart though and after a while learned to mulitask and read while on the pot. He's still pretty OCD about his clothes. He has a handful of things he will wear and has certain things he likes to wear on certain days and doesn't switch it up much. Ivan you're a good kid. Thanks for being part of our family

EMERY- our capable little gal. She's pretty mature and can take care of Kate as good as I can. She was helping me roll meatballs one night and we had to run over to the school for parent teacher conference and so I told her to finish rolling the balls. I came home and she had finished rolling, put them in the oven for 10 min. Asked Ivan to get them out when they looked done and had started cutting the bread (dangerous I know) by the time I got home.  She is constantly bouncing and moving. For a while she was always throwing her body down on the bed or couch or hanging upside down or cartwheeling all over. We put her in tumbling and she's doing great.

She likes to Write me notes evertime I get mad :) I was mad one night and when I went in at 8:00 to put Kate down I just fell asleep and went to bed for the night. When I got up she had placed a few notes around the house with a little snack next to each one.

This one says, "do you have to be so pretty" hahahaha. 

she is creative, always making things or asking if she can help with dinner or make her own concoction or drawing her own cell phone or painting or something. Thanks also, for  being part of our family.

Happy birthday 10th and 6th bday

FEBRUARY

Hmmm lets see, how did February turn out this year?

 I think it's probably pretty similar to January. Our routine is running to the school to change out the home reading books, then tumbling (Emery) and swim (Jack & Emery) on Mondays.  Tuesdays we do piano (Jack) then to dance (Emery) and then to soccer (Ivan) practice. Wednesdays we are back to tumbling and then scouts (me, Ivan & Jack). Thursdays slow down to just soccer (Ivan) and Friday is piano for me and then a bit of freedom. 

My mom turned 72 this month. It is so crazy. My cousin sent this picture to me. It's the one my grandma put in the paper to announce my parents engagement. I see a little bit of Jack in her.

Valentines was pretty wet and cold. We made our annual sugar cookies and delivered them to friends and grandma's and then just took the whole family and went to Himalayan kitchen for dinner.

Ivan plays football no matter what

It was Emery's turn to be star student. This poster notes that she likes dance, roller blading, tumbling, BBQ chips dunking in cottage cheese, and fav book is Magic Treehouse.

Jack did his spotlight in January but thought I'd throw it in while putting Emery's up.

Updated picture of the babies

  

  How come babies like to sit on the dishwasher door?

Just quick Kate update. 

She likes to look through books. She gives a cute little excited laugh when I get out of the van and she can see me walk around behind it until I reach her door. She loves skin (like Ivan did as a baby). Any skin she see's showing she'll either give it a little pinch, a zerbert or rub it. She leans in quite often for a kiss. Sometimes when I'm nursing her she'll pull off and say, "mom" and if I don't answer she'll say it again, "mom." and if I tell her, "shhh go to sleep" or ignore her or say anything other than, "what?" she'll just keep saying "mom." as soon as I say "What?" a bunch of gibberish comes rolling out of her mouth and then she'll go back to nursing. The process can repeat itself 3 or 4 times during the nursing session or when we are driving in the car. She is saying so much. She tells everyone in the store "hi." One day we were at the store and I was stopped looking at something and there was a lady next to us looking at her phone. Kate said, "hi." The lady didn't respond so she said it again. Then again. The lady was looking at her phone texting so kate bend down and forward toward her kinda like she was trying to stick her face under the ladies to get her attention and said "hi!" again. One of my favorite things is how she nods her head yes. Most the time babies get good at the "no" head shake, but when I ask Kate something she will nod her head two quick nods yes. She loves dogs and discovered a pair of jelly shoes and some pink shoes in  her drawer and always wants them on.

Cousin Cody is headed to Jackson Mississippi as a missionary. We drove to Idaho to hear him speak in church. We are excited for him.

We are just starting to get our winter snow. ug.

JANUARY

Can you believe it's January TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHTEEN?! I cannot.
January is crappy because Mike works late nights and most Saturdays, but it's great because we get to start the year with a birthday for Jack. Jack turned 8. He is pretty easy to please, so we had a few friends over, played a few games downstairs and had cake and ice cream. 

It's true there wasn't a bounce house, just hula hoops and dodge ball and a tiny tikes basketball hoop.

Family celebration

Our Jack is a joy. 

He has to be making loud squealing sounds most the time and he has to get a good smack in when he walks past you; either on the head, the butt, the back, wherever. He also likes to take things that don't belong to him, but is able to keep the most innocent face, like he has no idea what he's doing or what Emery is all screamy about. Silly boy.  Jack a joy. He has the softest body that is perfect for snuggling. He's got a fun sense of humor.  I admire his laid back personality.  His favorite food is chips. He takes after Grandpa Woody and loves BBQ chips. He's smart and kind and friendly at school.  He's now in scouts

He also started piano (so did I) and is really liking it and doing awesome. He also started swim lessons. We needed something physical for the winter months and want to be ready for summer.

He still says pretty sweet things about Kate. One time we were discussing what we can do when we are angry instead of getting mad and his suggestion for me when I 'm mad was to picture them all as babyKate

Another time he was telling me just how cute Kate is and I told him that I loved how they all loved her because it gives them a little glimpse of how I feel about them and he said, "yeah...  but you got to give birth to her and that's the beautiful part. Another time I was telling the kids how lucky Kate is to have them them and he said, "WE are so lucky to have HER." He's fun loving and I'm glad he's mine.

Other than his birthday January was pretty uneventful. Ive put my library app to use and have listened to a couple books: 

All the light we cannot see

To kill a mocking bird

In order to live

 I know why the caged bird sings

Kate had an ear infection most of the month. 3 rounds of antibiotics finally did the trick. Mike took Ivan and Jack skiing.

And that pretty much does it.