Catching up on a few pictures here… The kids have started swimming lessons again (all three of them).

We’ve also started ice skating (thanks Crystal for roping us into another activity LOL)…

And one more… Bill and I went to a wedding on Saturday and dressed up 🙂

Seems like it has been a while since I’ve posted… too much time in that I’m sure I’m going to forget something. I’m writing this from my new cool MacBook (I’m the newest Mac-convert) and I’m hoping to write more often (although don’t forget this is April LOL).First of all, Nana passed away last Sunday. We’re all sad she’s gone, but glad that she’s not suffering anymore. There was a nice memorial for her on Saturday, and it was nice to see so much family in attendance as well as so many of her friends.

What else… I’m staying at Orrtax a bit longer if my plan is approved. I’ll just be working at home much more. It’s been great to have Keina watching the kids some days, but all of this childcare juggling is killing me. We’ll see how this summer goes, though, when I have to work AND take care of them. Should be interesting. I’m sure I’ll be counting down the days to the first day of school 🙂

Speaking of the first day of school, I’m taking a statistics class this quarter (technically starting tomorrow, but I’ve already started). I figured it wouldn’t hurt to start working on the prerequisites to enter the BS Accounting program at CWU (they have a Edmonds extension). Who knows if I’ll ever finish, but it’s nice to be working on something. It’s a LOT of work, though!

Christian: Got his 2nd trimester report card and had a conference with his teacher. Christian brought all of his grades up, and we are so proud of him. He is still having problems with peer pressure and self-esteem, but academically he’s doing much better. He currently works one-on-one with someone for writing three days a week. We haven’t gotten any test results back yet, but they’re in progress. His teacher is going to be re-evaluating the kids in reading over the next few weeks too, so the results of that will be interesting as well. We can tell he’s doing much better. The last four weeks in church, the kids have presented a banner they made to the congregation and each had a notecard to read and Christian read his really well.

Brandon: In the same banner presentations, Brandon has done great with memorizing his lines (except for today when he declined to participate, even though he knew his line perfectly). He takes such pride in memorizing, it’s really cute. He’s VERY excited about Easter coming up (so am I… I gave up chocolate for Lent and I can’t wait to eat my Cadbury eggs LOL).

Alyson: Little Miss Alyson has reached the terrible twos. Most of the time, she’s still the sweet charming little flirt we all know and love, but oh boy look out if she doesn’t get her way. Especially if she didn’t have a nap and it’s after 4 in the afternoon. She can turn into quite the terror-tot. But we love her anyway… it is fun to see her becoming so independent.

Bill’s been busy with recording and web projects, and now he’s also one of the assistant coaches for Christian’s baseball team.

I can’t think of anything else… I’m surviving tax season. April will be crazy but May should be really quiet.

Christian – is on the list to undergo complete educational testing. In the meantime, I got a book about ADD Nutrition which has a 30 day dietary plan for kids with attention issues, and we’re going to give that angle a try. We’re still trying any tactic we can come up with to try to help him and there have definitely been really good days and really bad days.Brandon – is going for a hearing test Wednesday and meeting with a speech therapist soon for evaluation and therapy. Now that he’s in preschool, he’s getting really frustrated with not being understood by his peers. We’ll have his preschool conference Feb 2 or Feb 9, so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. He completely shut down at school the other day because his teacher didn’t get him something he asked for… not sure if he asked too quietly, wasn’t clear, or it was just a bad time, but he spent the entire remainder of the class face down on the floor and even declined snack. That and shyness has become the norm for him lately, so I’m anxious to get him some help. I did get him the very last spot in Full Day Kindergarten for Fall yesterday.

Alyson – is out-shining her brothers at the moment. She’s certainly having her ‘two’ moments complete with blood-curdling screams, but overall she’s an extremely happy, independent child. She loves puzzles and coloring and her new Dora castle and is enjoying learning letters and colors and shapes already. She is WAY clearer than Brandon is, speech-wise, which is really eye-opening.

Me? Barely keeping head above water. Selfishly want a foot or two of snow to fall tonight so I can stay home and get some work done. Several client files on my desk to wrap up. Lots of overtime at work (it’s beyond awful there right now – the stress is through the roof and on to the moon). I SO can’t wait to leave there. Have I mentioned I was insane enough to volunteer to be on the Board of Directors for our local Thrivent chapter? I’m the communications director. Poor Bill will probably have to help me improve the website. At least he’s staying sane through all of this (although he has a recording gig next week!).

Breathe in….. Breath out…. and go rescue dinner 🙂

Well, we just returned home from our annual adventure to the fair, $200 lighter than when we left (yikes!). We had to park at the absolute farthest parking area possible, so we all got our exercise! We all had a great time, though. Uncle Ed was kind enough to join us and he took Christian for a little while to the bigger kid area. Christian won a big green mouse stuffed animal and a blow-up stick. He also bought a plastic trumpet which he and Alyson both loved, but it sadly was a casualty today – it disappeared at some point (shhh… he hasn’t noticed yet). Brandon and Daddy had some time to themselves too and had a blast going on the little kid rides. Brandon also won a fish! So of course, we had to buy the tank and a second fish. The fish are currently named Max and Braden (who knows how long those names will last). We have to pick up fish food at the store tomorrow. Brandon also won a big blow-up hammer and two stuffed puppies for Alyson (although one of these was also a casualty today). Alyson and I wandered through a couple of the animal barns and the exhibit areas. She tried to win a fish too 🙂 She brought home a Dora beach ball and carried it all over. We really enjoyed the shaved ices this year – we had to pick the hottest day of the weekend to go! Well, there you have it… another year into the history books.

I’ve been promising Angie I’d write about just how crazy life is around here… I keep wondering where April went and then I remember it went to taxes and baseball… and gymnastics and chess and kindermusik!

Here’s how last Tuesday afternoon went (or at least my recollection of it LOL)…

am – pack lunchables in lunch box, take to work, remember to grab from work fridge

2:30 – left work early (driving the van)

3:15 – pick Christian up from Chess class, drive Christian to Maplewood Elementary for chess tournament

3:40 – Bill swapped cars with us at Maplewood, Christian played two games of chess – first one he hung on until time ran out (his lonely king being chased all over the board) – second game he lost in 4 moves – needs to learn to defend against that strategy!

4:30 – leave Maplewood (now driving the Saturn), open lunchables for Christian to eat while we drive

5:15 – drop Christian off at Kindermusik for his class

6:15 – Bill arrives with van, Brandon, and Alyson for Brandon’s class

6:20 – Alyson joins parent time for Christian’s class

6:30 – Christian, Alyson and I take van home (Brandon’s class is 6:45 – 7:30)

7:15 – Alyson’s in bed!

8:00 – Christian’s in bed, Brandon’s home and to bed and mommy sleeps really soundly LOL

Thankfully, the chess tournament part was a one-time thing. Christian does have chess class every Tuesday until 3:30, so I have to leave work around 2:30, but then at least we have time to get home and go out to eat before heading out to Kindermusik.

Wednesdays, Christian goes to Kid’s Club at church and stays there while Bill has choir practice.

Thursdays, Brandon has Gymnastics class from 5:30 to 6:00, which has been FABULOUS for him. It’s SO much fun to watch his lesson.

Christian has also been busy with baseball and homework… it’s been absolutely crazy, but I know June is coming. Then we just have to figure out what to do to help Christian with his reading.

We’re really looking forward to May 12… Christian and Crystal and Joy and I are going to San Juan Island. Christian wants to be a dolphin trainer when he grows up, so we’re going up to the whale museum and we’re also going to go kayaking! I’m excited. The kids are a little nervous about the kayaking part, but I think it will be fun.

Alyson is talking a ton and getting into everything. She goes up and down the stairs no problem. She loves to say ‘no no no’! And ’shoes’. And she tries to say everything else. She’s thrilled when she says ‘milk’ at the dinner table and we know what she means. She’s really good when she’s tired… she just has to go go go until you put her to bed… then she goes right to sleep. She loves her brothers SO much. Her most-used word right now is ‘Brandon’ which she says very clearly (and VERY often). She seems to think everything is Brandon’s.

Christian’s a good kid – he’s trying really hard to keep up with his 2nd grader teammates at baseball. It’s been a bit hard for him to be one of the younger kids, but it’s been good for him. He’s still struggling with reading, but he LOVES joke books. He has days that he’s perfectly happy to get his homework done and out of the way and other days he throws absolute fits and I end up at wit’s end. But one day at a time. He’s really frustrated with Brandon – the typical sibling stuff. He needs his own space and a safe place to keep his treasures. I’m thinking about finding him a locker-type thing where he can lock up his favorite things. He’s looking forward to his pirate birthday party this year – should be fun. We’re going to hide the goody boxes for his friends and give them treasure maps to find them Now I just have to pray that a baseball tournament game won’t be at the same time as his party.

Brandon is looking forward to preschool in the fall. He’s going to go to Trinity Lutheran preschool just up the street. He really jumped right in the day we visited. He keeps saying he wants to play tball, but I think he just feels left out at Christian’s games. He’s really really enjoying his gymnastics lessons with Ben and coach Erin. They’ve gotten to do tumbling and jumping and balance beams and rings and bars… he’s always got such a big smile on his face. I’m hoping to get some pictures this week. Thankfully, his asthma seems to be under control as long as we use his inhaler before class. He’s still pretty wild and out of control sometimes at home and at Kindermusik, but we think he’s outgrowing some of it. We will probaby give him a year off from Kindermusik next year… he’s just not enjoying it. I’d rather put him in another night a week of gymnastics at this rate (the cost would be about the same!).

Well, that was WAY more than I think you were expecting, Angie But maybe now that it’s all typed, I can copy/paste into the kid’s scrapbooks (which I finally started working on again last weekend!). Hugs to all!

Well, this blog entry would have been done last weekend if our internet hadn’t been down for two days. Apparently something blew up and knocked out only our service But it’s all better now

Christmas was WONDERFUL. We had such a nice, relaxing weekend!

The 23rd, Friday, I was lucky enough to leave work early. The boss was on vacation, although apparently she did call around the office to try to find someone around 2. There was no one to be found

Christmas eve was, as always, spent up in Arlington. The kids had a great time with aunties and cousins. Alyson loved all of the food. The previous week at bake day, she even liked a tomato and mozzerella (sorry for the spelling) and vinagrette (ack, spelling again) salad. Alyson didn’t even mind being passed around. All day the kids asked when they could open presents! Christian got both the smore maker and the chocolate fountain he’d been asking for. He was so excited! Brandon got a karate Spongebob toy that he’d been asking for. Alyson got an adorable little chair with a table and light that sings to her and lights up. (There were other gifts as well, but these are the highlights)

We even made it to the Christmas Eve candlelight service. We had to be there at 10 for the 11pm service. The kids got changed in to their jammies and were really good. A little wound up, but good. Brandon slept through the whole service. Alyson desperately wanted the candles! She was so tired but just couldn’t rest. Christian was a little bit bored, but when it came time to light the candles, he perked right up.

By the time the kids were in bed, it was at least 12:30. Bill and I got to bed about 2. At 5, Christian woke up and woke me up (and was promptly told to go back to sleep LOL). He slept on the floor by my bed until 7:30. Much better We were all up and tearing into stockings by 8. Bill was disappointed because he got Brandon the same SpongeBob gift, but Brandon decided he liked it so much he wanted to keep them both!

After all of the gifts were opened, we had a nice breakfast and we had a little bit of time to play before Grandma Julie came over. We really enjoyed her visit. Alyson carried around her new Live Strong bracelet for 24 hours before she put it down for a rest LOL. The kids love the play tent and tunnel too. It was the year for duplicate gifts, though. I know Mom was disappointed that Christian had already received a smore maker. The good news is, I’m sure the Alvord family will enjoy it We’re hoping to get together with them this weekend.

We had Christmas dinner at Grandma Tessie’s house, and more gifts! Uncle Ed spoiled the boys with a Nintendo DS to share!! Alyson got a really cute fuzzy Dora chair to sit in and a nice fleece pillow. Ed found me a nice lamp that’s made of salt! It’s really cool. Bill was excited to get Battlestar Galactica Season 1 on DVD. We still have one more gift exchange there, as Uncle Andrew and Brenda are in Chicago.

The 26th we got to just have a nice relaxing day home playing with all of our new toys Over all, we had a great Christmas! Brandon was funny… he said he hated every single gift (well, except the SpongeBob gift). Alyson, on the other hand, dearly loved every single gift. She loves her Cabbage Patch doll, her bracelet, both of her new chairs, her ball popper toy from Daddy… every single gift. She even loves the clothes! Christian’s favorite gifts this year were his new spy kit and the smore maker and a remote control flywheel that Brandon got him. Brandon’s favorite gift was by far the SpongeBob toy.

I think that about sums up our Christmas weekend! Happy New Year everyone!