Monday, November 25, 2013

Real Role models...

As an avid reader of TMZ, it never ceases to amaze me how difficult it is to find real role models for children.  The people my husband and I think are pretty cool like Steve Nash or Katy Perry either have ended up being punks or in my case they just really not PG rated.  The good thing in our life is that my children have real life heroes!  Young adults who are really amazing doing good things with their lives and loving my kids :)  This blog is a thank you them...

Little Miss Jackie

This girl is a super hero in her own right, perfect person to be teaching my little super hero.  Miss Jackie is currently a pre-veterinarian science undergraduate doing research at NMSU.  Amazing!  She also works another job while going to school full time.  She used to be the main teacher at Gym Magic for dance but she had to find time to sleep.  She teaches one class just because she loves it and I love her for it.  I don't know how I will take it (or especially Rachel will take it) when she goes off to graduate school.  When I talk about role models for my daughter I think a lot about her because she is not just insanely beautiful but just as smart and so hard working!

Our Mr. Austin

I remember watching Austin our first week at Gym Magic.  I thought wow, that guy is a bowl of fun.  Than later in the year I went to go see Rocky Horror Picture Show at NMSU and I thought gee that guy playing Rocky is a fantastic dancer and gymnast.  Well come January, I realized Austin was our Rocky.  He began teaching Harmon and his enthusiasm was electric for Harmon.  I have talked a lot about he was really the first person to really motivate and encourage Harmon to reach for the stars.  The day he told me that he was leaving so he could focus more on theater was so sad but I was so proud of him for going for his dreams.  I look forward to telling people one day... "I knew him when..."  I know he misses us and we miss him every time we are at the gym and he isn't around.  He he gave my son a gift that will be more precious than words.

Our Sister Missionary Chelsea

I met Chelsea about 4.5 years ago.   It was when we moved to Sonoma and changed congregations.  At the time I was 4 months pregnant with the twins and Harm was really struggling.  Chelsea saw that and even though she was this little freshman she pegged us in need of a helping hand.  Thanks to her I was able to get Harmon used to a new church.  She is the first young lady we ever trusted to babysit the twins and she is someone as a freshman in college helped care for the kids when I had a night class.  Since than we have met many other wonderful young ladies who have helped babysit or helped at church.  Still Chelsea stands among them all in my heart.  I remember the day she told me she had decided to serve an LDS mission, I cried.  Not just because I knew what a great experience it would be for her but because I know she will change so many people's lives!  This is a girl who is destined to change the world one person at a time.  She did so a little teen, she is doing so now, and I have no doubt she will do so the rest of her life.


I wish I had more time to write about everyone.  There are just too many and I am too tired.  At the gym we have David who is this awesome 16 year old teaching Harm now, Cassie Rachy's other dance teacher, Rachey's gym teacher Laura, Cally's girlfriends at the gym: Jordin, Stephanie, and the wonderful Katrina!  Rachel's swim teacher Enrique.  The list goes on...  All amazing!   Each have inspired my children, helped them achieve, supported them, or helped them dream bigger.  I'm grateful I don't have to worry about Miley Cyrus when my kids are busy looking up to these guys!

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

A simple man with simple pleasures!!!

Callum has two crazy parents and two crazy siblings.  I always laugh at how somehow Callum seems to be above it all.  He is our peacemaker.  He very rarely gets all riled up and when it does he does it is sort of funny and so I laugh and that gets him more angry.    Thank goodness those times are rare.  Mainly he just has that deep belly laugh that never stops and the man LOVES penguins, bunnies, and pandas.


This year Callum didn't like all day school.  So I agreed to let him spend half days with me but he knew I would have to work.  For the most part he has been such a trooper.  He just plays while I work.  Yesterday was his first day to really act up and I couldn't do anything with him.  He told me today it wasn't his fault, he was an evil samurai penguin.  Today though the happy penguin was back and I got plenty done.  I really am glad to have him around.  It is special for me to have this time together.  The fact is that we are planning on redshirting the twins and there is no hurry to grow up.


Callum just finished his first soccer season this weekend.  It is was awesome to see how much fun he had.  He truly loved every bit of it :)  His favorite part was his trophy.  He is also obsessed these days with basketball.  He can't throw high enough for the hoop so he gets on a chair and throws hoops from there.  He is getting more into art and gym though which have never been his thing.  I'm proud to see him challenging himself!

I feel bad for him because he gets teased a lot for his Brooklyn accent.  I think it is cute but other kids are starting to mock him.  We are probably going to have tubes put in his ears and if that improves his hearing.  He doesn't look to have fluid but he has hearing loss and so this is the first step in trying to see if that improves his hearing loss.  If not we will go from there.  We are also going to have him surgically checked at that time to see his palette up close.  We still don't know why it doesn't close consistently when speaking and eating.  He has been in speech therapy for a year now and it is all still the same.  I will miss his cute talking though.


We have a ton of fun singing in the car.  He still LOVES everything music.  He will get mad at me now if I change the radio station on a song he likes.  It amazes me how he knows the lyrics to everything.  He doesn't sing loud but his voice is so cute as he quietly sings his songs.  I'm taking him to see the Trans-Siberian orchestra with my mom next month.  I can't wait!!  We loved watching the special on the Hallmark channel last year.  He was the only one who could sit through it time and time again.

 He hopes to be a rock star magician one day.  I see him as a future pediatrician or a music teacher.  He has such a gentle spirit and a sharp mind.  I think whatever he does he will be great!  I treasure this special time with him that I get these days.

Running away and joining the circus!

In this blog I know I have referenced in the past the phrase "I'm going to runaway and join the circus."  Well now after our trip to Vegas the kids are now planning on following me!


One of the biggest treats this trip was my sister and her wonderful boyfriend Jason putting together two magical experiences for the babies: Circus Vargas and The V Show.  I remember seeing my first show in Las Vegas years and years ago, it was a show Eliza was working on at the time, and I was just star struck.  That is how the kids were!



The V Show was extra special because one of the featured performers was Jason.  Callum was just mystified by all of it.  He wants to grow up and be just like Jason, but with rockstar hair (his words not mine).  Jason and all of his fellow counterparts were very neat and some of the best I had ever seen.  The best critics though were the boys (Rachel slept through the whole thing)!  They couldn't stop talking about the birds and how neat Uncle Jason is!!!



Jason also was so very kind by getting us tickets to Circus Vargas.  That was mind-blowing.  They are a no animal circus.  Instead they focus, much like Cirque du Soilel, on mind blowing human feats of art.  They had a little of everything and it was so neat!!!  Rachel and Harmon especially were so affected by it.  They are my two who are going to run off and join the circus.  They wanted to go and try the acrobatics on their own (which I have vetoed).

The arts have always been instrumental in my own life.  Everything I do I try to make it artistic (which of course never impressed accounting when I had to turn in quarterly budgets).  It makes me happy to see how amazed my kids are with art now.  Each has their own unique talents and they may not end up going into magic or cirque performance their lives will be enriched as they learn to appreciate the stage and work on their craft while they are young.  This trip they got to see how dreams can come true when you put your heart into something.

Lost Vegas...

It is always painful for me in a way to think about Las Vegas.  It has been five years, and while I love the beautiful people in my life now, I still really miss home.  That is why this year I have made the conscious decision to come back and visit Vegas a couple times each year.

The kids love it too.  Harmon is all proud because he is a native Nevadan and constantly asks me when we will go home and move back.  My sister would love that and so would my bestie Jaimie.  They made everything so nice during our trip. When it was time to leave I just cried, especially hugging Jaimie goodbye b/c I knew that it would be a while till I saw her again.



Jaimie is my kindred twin.  I am very shy but when I met her it just felt like we were sisters in another life.  We have been totally inseparable since 2004.  The sad part about it though is that because of fate we hadn't been able to see see each other in ages.  Seeing her was just awesomeness!


Eliza is my big sister by six years and she has taught me so much.  She is solely responsible for me becoming more of a lady.  I was such a tomboy when I moved to Vegas, I never even shaved and wore guy clothes.  She opened a lot of doors for me and because of her I was really able to find myself.  It is funny because we have an odd symbiotic relationship where we sort of complete each other.  Always been yin and yang.  She loves the babies so much.  Especially Harm!  She was the first one to hold him before Chris and I.  Each one is special to her.  Rachel's has her middle name, Snow, in honor of my sweet sister.  They are so alike also, baby blonde bombshells!


When I go home it is bittersweet.  We visited that should have been ours, but than Chris got laid off before it was finished and so we had to walk away from our contract.  Also I miss some of the small things that I just loved and is no more.  When I used to live there my favorite place to eat was a small Puerto Rican restaurant called "El Coqui" that always reminded me of home.  There used to be a lot of nice lounge clubs like Zaks at the Golden Nugget that celebrated the old Frank like spirit that made Vegas, Las Vegas.  The first night clubs I used to go like: Light, Studio 54, Tangerine, and RumJungle are all gone.  Even my old radio station that gave me my love for quirky alternative music is now just another pop station.  A lot of the live magic shows and stage shows are gone as well.

What is still there though are wonderful people.  I was so sad I didn't have time to visit anyone it felt like :(  Next trip I want to go take the kids where we were married.  I want them to meet many other dear friends of mine.  So the only solution of course is going back real soon!

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Here comes Mighty Mouse!

There is not a day that goes by that I am not totally proud of my Rachel.  I just laugh when I think about doctors who said how limited she might be when we were told she has Cerebral Palsy.  Yup, they didn't know who they were diagnosing...


This year having exited much of the private services for gross motor and fine motor has gone very well.  We made a good decision.  She will be evaluated by Carrie Tingly Hospital soon again to make sure she is not heel walking with her right foot.  If she is she might need to go back into an orthotic but honestly even that I think might be too invasive.  I kick myself almost everyday when I limited her future thinking how this diagnoses would limit her.  Now I'm realizing instead of worrying so much about doing everything possible, just letting Rachey be Rachey is sort of all she needs.


We don't treat her at all differently than we do the boys except that her Special Ed teacher has instructed us to use a stroller during long activities.  Yup, that doesn't go too well with the boys.  Rachel assumes it is just princess treatment.  We also try to make sure she still gets a two hour nap because she needs more sleep than the boys.  It is when she is tired that she will start too wobble and get hurt.




No super hero story of course would be complete though without seeing her super powers.  While she does not do sports at this time she does do 2 classes of gym and 2 classes of dance a week.  She is just always charming everyone.  They call her the little performer for a reason.   I'm amazed by the sheer strength of her little body.   My favorite is her dance though, because she is just too cute!

Belated Birthday...

So yes my twins turned four.  I was typing tow and it really was four.  That is how strange it is.  I don't really understand how my babies are no longer my little babies anymore.  Poor little guys, their party got delayed 3 times.  They didn't believe me when we were driving up the the Aquatic Center and it was their little birthday.  It was super fun!  Here are the memories!

















Over scheduled!!!

I read a quote tonight that stated "you can do anything, you just can't do everything".  Oy, so true!  My kids and I are over scheduled.  Anyone who knows me, I'm always running around like a chicken with my head cut off but I fear I am spawning a whole new generation of chickens.


I realized this on Friday night.  I was taking Harm to two back to back gym classes.  We were talking how tomorrow is going to be his last soccer game.  That is when he informed me that there would only be a short break and than soccer will be starting again along with t-ball.  I tried to explain to him that since he is in gymnastics he is not going to be doing spring soccer.  He corrected me.  He told me his coach has decided to do both sports and they will schedule around his gym lessons.


I feel bad pushing him to choose.  I still haven't decided if I will hold firm on his either soccer or t-ball because he really wants to do all three.   Still we have Rachel in 4 hours of dance and gym.  Harm has 3 hours of gym.  Callum has 1 hour of gym.  Soccer was taking up 2 practices and one game per week.  So when the dust settled this fall we have really only had one family night, on Tuesday.  My kids may not be tired but I sure am :(

Sunday, November 10, 2013

My creepy kitty...

I had to share this story simply because I think it is really funny.  This Halloween each of my kids proved how brave they were.  Nothing scared them!!!  We would go too Spirit, the Halloween store, and nothing would shake them (even the giant spider that would jump out at them).  A few days after Halloween Harmon came to me and confessed, there is indeed something that scares him big time... and his name is Henry.


Often at night Henry sneaks out and comes back in time for his supper.  Well I guess Harm is mortified of him because Harm now doesn't want to take the trash out at night.   He told me he has nightmares.  I suspect this might be his way of getting out of one of his nightly chores but Harm swears he is scared of that cat.

Of course if anyone should be scared of that cat it is Chris.  I got him this book recently and the signs are there...


In other cat news Bob got really sick with an eye infection during the Summer.  Well 4 months later he is now doing good.   You never realize how lucky you are to have a little pet in your life till you almost lose him.  I swore I never would spend the money I spent to save that eye but losing Bob was not an option.  It is good to have my kitty pretty back.

Harmonius Harmon

Last month when I blogged I said that Harmon really hasn't changed all that much since starting Kindergarten.  Now I can say I was really wrong.  He has changed so much!

It is the little things now.  Last year he really feared people liking him.  He felt very different from other kids.  Now he has grown quite a bit and I think a lot of that is gym.  He tells everyone he is a Samurai Ninja and teaches Ninja school to the other kids.  He is really growing in his soccer as well.  I am so proud that he is not getting written up anymore for talking or being distracted (that was almost daily last year).  He has his friends like Ben Ben (pictured above) and friends like Samuel and Ezra at school.  There is still drama occasionally between the boys.  I laugh at that.  I always thought girls were the ones who would have drama.



The biggest change is how much he is loving the journey of reading.  I know he is going to be a writer like his mom one day.  The above video was his first talk at church a couple of weeks ago.  I didn't know he was supposed to give a talk so I wrote it down really quickly.  He had to read it and he did it.  Reading is now our daily tradition.  He is reading the twins books to them.  I couldn't be prouder.

It is hard having such a big boy but he still my little Harmon who sleeps with his dolly and gives me kisses.  When Chris and I had separated this year it broke my heart so much because he understood that our family had changed.  I feel guilty for that, but I am also proud of him because he stood up and just really helped me every day.  Getting everyone ready, pouring milk for the twins cereal while I was in the shower, clicking the babies into the car seat, etc.  He is one day going to be an amazing father and husband one day if he keeps this up.  In the mean time I'm glad things are a little more stable and now he can go back to be more of a little boy.  


This time taught us both how much love runs deep.  Everyday I think God for my little man!  And he is still just as cute.  You can see from this video in the parking lot waiting for soccer practice.  My apologies for my thumb.  It is a new camera.  Enjoy his cuteness singing and making his cute faces :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSJgrVICaQo&feature=share&list=UU91zhiz8PpVw8K80S4HGsBg

Monday, November 25, 2013

Real Role models...

As an avid reader of TMZ, it never ceases to amaze me how difficult it is to find real role models for children.  The people my husband and I think are pretty cool like Steve Nash or Katy Perry either have ended up being punks or in my case they just really not PG rated.  The good thing in our life is that my children have real life heroes!  Young adults who are really amazing doing good things with their lives and loving my kids :)  This blog is a thank you them...

Little Miss Jackie

This girl is a super hero in her own right, perfect person to be teaching my little super hero.  Miss Jackie is currently a pre-veterinarian science undergraduate doing research at NMSU.  Amazing!  She also works another job while going to school full time.  She used to be the main teacher at Gym Magic for dance but she had to find time to sleep.  She teaches one class just because she loves it and I love her for it.  I don't know how I will take it (or especially Rachel will take it) when she goes off to graduate school.  When I talk about role models for my daughter I think a lot about her because she is not just insanely beautiful but just as smart and so hard working!

Our Mr. Austin

I remember watching Austin our first week at Gym Magic.  I thought wow, that guy is a bowl of fun.  Than later in the year I went to go see Rocky Horror Picture Show at NMSU and I thought gee that guy playing Rocky is a fantastic dancer and gymnast.  Well come January, I realized Austin was our Rocky.  He began teaching Harmon and his enthusiasm was electric for Harmon.  I have talked a lot about he was really the first person to really motivate and encourage Harmon to reach for the stars.  The day he told me that he was leaving so he could focus more on theater was so sad but I was so proud of him for going for his dreams.  I look forward to telling people one day... "I knew him when..."  I know he misses us and we miss him every time we are at the gym and he isn't around.  He he gave my son a gift that will be more precious than words.

Our Sister Missionary Chelsea

I met Chelsea about 4.5 years ago.   It was when we moved to Sonoma and changed congregations.  At the time I was 4 months pregnant with the twins and Harm was really struggling.  Chelsea saw that and even though she was this little freshman she pegged us in need of a helping hand.  Thanks to her I was able to get Harmon used to a new church.  She is the first young lady we ever trusted to babysit the twins and she is someone as a freshman in college helped care for the kids when I had a night class.  Since than we have met many other wonderful young ladies who have helped babysit or helped at church.  Still Chelsea stands among them all in my heart.  I remember the day she told me she had decided to serve an LDS mission, I cried.  Not just because I knew what a great experience it would be for her but because I know she will change so many people's lives!  This is a girl who is destined to change the world one person at a time.  She did so a little teen, she is doing so now, and I have no doubt she will do so the rest of her life.


I wish I had more time to write about everyone.  There are just too many and I am too tired.  At the gym we have David who is this awesome 16 year old teaching Harm now, Cassie Rachy's other dance teacher, Rachey's gym teacher Laura, Cally's girlfriends at the gym: Jordin, Stephanie, and the wonderful Katrina!  Rachel's swim teacher Enrique.  The list goes on...  All amazing!   Each have inspired my children, helped them achieve, supported them, or helped them dream bigger.  I'm grateful I don't have to worry about Miley Cyrus when my kids are busy looking up to these guys!

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

A simple man with simple pleasures!!!

Callum has two crazy parents and two crazy siblings.  I always laugh at how somehow Callum seems to be above it all.  He is our peacemaker.  He very rarely gets all riled up and when it does he does it is sort of funny and so I laugh and that gets him more angry.    Thank goodness those times are rare.  Mainly he just has that deep belly laugh that never stops and the man LOVES penguins, bunnies, and pandas.


This year Callum didn't like all day school.  So I agreed to let him spend half days with me but he knew I would have to work.  For the most part he has been such a trooper.  He just plays while I work.  Yesterday was his first day to really act up and I couldn't do anything with him.  He told me today it wasn't his fault, he was an evil samurai penguin.  Today though the happy penguin was back and I got plenty done.  I really am glad to have him around.  It is special for me to have this time together.  The fact is that we are planning on redshirting the twins and there is no hurry to grow up.


Callum just finished his first soccer season this weekend.  It is was awesome to see how much fun he had.  He truly loved every bit of it :)  His favorite part was his trophy.  He is also obsessed these days with basketball.  He can't throw high enough for the hoop so he gets on a chair and throws hoops from there.  He is getting more into art and gym though which have never been his thing.  I'm proud to see him challenging himself!

I feel bad for him because he gets teased a lot for his Brooklyn accent.  I think it is cute but other kids are starting to mock him.  We are probably going to have tubes put in his ears and if that improves his hearing.  He doesn't look to have fluid but he has hearing loss and so this is the first step in trying to see if that improves his hearing loss.  If not we will go from there.  We are also going to have him surgically checked at that time to see his palette up close.  We still don't know why it doesn't close consistently when speaking and eating.  He has been in speech therapy for a year now and it is all still the same.  I will miss his cute talking though.


We have a ton of fun singing in the car.  He still LOVES everything music.  He will get mad at me now if I change the radio station on a song he likes.  It amazes me how he knows the lyrics to everything.  He doesn't sing loud but his voice is so cute as he quietly sings his songs.  I'm taking him to see the Trans-Siberian orchestra with my mom next month.  I can't wait!!  We loved watching the special on the Hallmark channel last year.  He was the only one who could sit through it time and time again.

 He hopes to be a rock star magician one day.  I see him as a future pediatrician or a music teacher.  He has such a gentle spirit and a sharp mind.  I think whatever he does he will be great!  I treasure this special time with him that I get these days.

Running away and joining the circus!

In this blog I know I have referenced in the past the phrase "I'm going to runaway and join the circus."  Well now after our trip to Vegas the kids are now planning on following me!


One of the biggest treats this trip was my sister and her wonderful boyfriend Jason putting together two magical experiences for the babies: Circus Vargas and The V Show.  I remember seeing my first show in Las Vegas years and years ago, it was a show Eliza was working on at the time, and I was just star struck.  That is how the kids were!



The V Show was extra special because one of the featured performers was Jason.  Callum was just mystified by all of it.  He wants to grow up and be just like Jason, but with rockstar hair (his words not mine).  Jason and all of his fellow counterparts were very neat and some of the best I had ever seen.  The best critics though were the boys (Rachel slept through the whole thing)!  They couldn't stop talking about the birds and how neat Uncle Jason is!!!



Jason also was so very kind by getting us tickets to Circus Vargas.  That was mind-blowing.  They are a no animal circus.  Instead they focus, much like Cirque du Soilel, on mind blowing human feats of art.  They had a little of everything and it was so neat!!!  Rachel and Harmon especially were so affected by it.  They are my two who are going to run off and join the circus.  They wanted to go and try the acrobatics on their own (which I have vetoed).

The arts have always been instrumental in my own life.  Everything I do I try to make it artistic (which of course never impressed accounting when I had to turn in quarterly budgets).  It makes me happy to see how amazed my kids are with art now.  Each has their own unique talents and they may not end up going into magic or cirque performance their lives will be enriched as they learn to appreciate the stage and work on their craft while they are young.  This trip they got to see how dreams can come true when you put your heart into something.

Lost Vegas...

It is always painful for me in a way to think about Las Vegas.  It has been five years, and while I love the beautiful people in my life now, I still really miss home.  That is why this year I have made the conscious decision to come back and visit Vegas a couple times each year.

The kids love it too.  Harmon is all proud because he is a native Nevadan and constantly asks me when we will go home and move back.  My sister would love that and so would my bestie Jaimie.  They made everything so nice during our trip. When it was time to leave I just cried, especially hugging Jaimie goodbye b/c I knew that it would be a while till I saw her again.



Jaimie is my kindred twin.  I am very shy but when I met her it just felt like we were sisters in another life.  We have been totally inseparable since 2004.  The sad part about it though is that because of fate we hadn't been able to see see each other in ages.  Seeing her was just awesomeness!


Eliza is my big sister by six years and she has taught me so much.  She is solely responsible for me becoming more of a lady.  I was such a tomboy when I moved to Vegas, I never even shaved and wore guy clothes.  She opened a lot of doors for me and because of her I was really able to find myself.  It is funny because we have an odd symbiotic relationship where we sort of complete each other.  Always been yin and yang.  She loves the babies so much.  Especially Harm!  She was the first one to hold him before Chris and I.  Each one is special to her.  Rachel's has her middle name, Snow, in honor of my sweet sister.  They are so alike also, baby blonde bombshells!


When I go home it is bittersweet.  We visited that should have been ours, but than Chris got laid off before it was finished and so we had to walk away from our contract.  Also I miss some of the small things that I just loved and is no more.  When I used to live there my favorite place to eat was a small Puerto Rican restaurant called "El Coqui" that always reminded me of home.  There used to be a lot of nice lounge clubs like Zaks at the Golden Nugget that celebrated the old Frank like spirit that made Vegas, Las Vegas.  The first night clubs I used to go like: Light, Studio 54, Tangerine, and RumJungle are all gone.  Even my old radio station that gave me my love for quirky alternative music is now just another pop station.  A lot of the live magic shows and stage shows are gone as well.

What is still there though are wonderful people.  I was so sad I didn't have time to visit anyone it felt like :(  Next trip I want to go take the kids where we were married.  I want them to meet many other dear friends of mine.  So the only solution of course is going back real soon!

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Here comes Mighty Mouse!

There is not a day that goes by that I am not totally proud of my Rachel.  I just laugh when I think about doctors who said how limited she might be when we were told she has Cerebral Palsy.  Yup, they didn't know who they were diagnosing...


This year having exited much of the private services for gross motor and fine motor has gone very well.  We made a good decision.  She will be evaluated by Carrie Tingly Hospital soon again to make sure she is not heel walking with her right foot.  If she is she might need to go back into an orthotic but honestly even that I think might be too invasive.  I kick myself almost everyday when I limited her future thinking how this diagnoses would limit her.  Now I'm realizing instead of worrying so much about doing everything possible, just letting Rachey be Rachey is sort of all she needs.


We don't treat her at all differently than we do the boys except that her Special Ed teacher has instructed us to use a stroller during long activities.  Yup, that doesn't go too well with the boys.  Rachel assumes it is just princess treatment.  We also try to make sure she still gets a two hour nap because she needs more sleep than the boys.  It is when she is tired that she will start too wobble and get hurt.




No super hero story of course would be complete though without seeing her super powers.  While she does not do sports at this time she does do 2 classes of gym and 2 classes of dance a week.  She is just always charming everyone.  They call her the little performer for a reason.   I'm amazed by the sheer strength of her little body.   My favorite is her dance though, because she is just too cute!

Belated Birthday...

So yes my twins turned four.  I was typing tow and it really was four.  That is how strange it is.  I don't really understand how my babies are no longer my little babies anymore.  Poor little guys, their party got delayed 3 times.  They didn't believe me when we were driving up the the Aquatic Center and it was their little birthday.  It was super fun!  Here are the memories!

















Over scheduled!!!

I read a quote tonight that stated "you can do anything, you just can't do everything".  Oy, so true!  My kids and I are over scheduled.  Anyone who knows me, I'm always running around like a chicken with my head cut off but I fear I am spawning a whole new generation of chickens.


I realized this on Friday night.  I was taking Harm to two back to back gym classes.  We were talking how tomorrow is going to be his last soccer game.  That is when he informed me that there would only be a short break and than soccer will be starting again along with t-ball.  I tried to explain to him that since he is in gymnastics he is not going to be doing spring soccer.  He corrected me.  He told me his coach has decided to do both sports and they will schedule around his gym lessons.


I feel bad pushing him to choose.  I still haven't decided if I will hold firm on his either soccer or t-ball because he really wants to do all three.   Still we have Rachel in 4 hours of dance and gym.  Harm has 3 hours of gym.  Callum has 1 hour of gym.  Soccer was taking up 2 practices and one game per week.  So when the dust settled this fall we have really only had one family night, on Tuesday.  My kids may not be tired but I sure am :(

Sunday, November 10, 2013

My creepy kitty...

I had to share this story simply because I think it is really funny.  This Halloween each of my kids proved how brave they were.  Nothing scared them!!!  We would go too Spirit, the Halloween store, and nothing would shake them (even the giant spider that would jump out at them).  A few days after Halloween Harmon came to me and confessed, there is indeed something that scares him big time... and his name is Henry.


Often at night Henry sneaks out and comes back in time for his supper.  Well I guess Harm is mortified of him because Harm now doesn't want to take the trash out at night.   He told me he has nightmares.  I suspect this might be his way of getting out of one of his nightly chores but Harm swears he is scared of that cat.

Of course if anyone should be scared of that cat it is Chris.  I got him this book recently and the signs are there...


In other cat news Bob got really sick with an eye infection during the Summer.  Well 4 months later he is now doing good.   You never realize how lucky you are to have a little pet in your life till you almost lose him.  I swore I never would spend the money I spent to save that eye but losing Bob was not an option.  It is good to have my kitty pretty back.

Harmonius Harmon

Last month when I blogged I said that Harmon really hasn't changed all that much since starting Kindergarten.  Now I can say I was really wrong.  He has changed so much!

It is the little things now.  Last year he really feared people liking him.  He felt very different from other kids.  Now he has grown quite a bit and I think a lot of that is gym.  He tells everyone he is a Samurai Ninja and teaches Ninja school to the other kids.  He is really growing in his soccer as well.  I am so proud that he is not getting written up anymore for talking or being distracted (that was almost daily last year).  He has his friends like Ben Ben (pictured above) and friends like Samuel and Ezra at school.  There is still drama occasionally between the boys.  I laugh at that.  I always thought girls were the ones who would have drama.



The biggest change is how much he is loving the journey of reading.  I know he is going to be a writer like his mom one day.  The above video was his first talk at church a couple of weeks ago.  I didn't know he was supposed to give a talk so I wrote it down really quickly.  He had to read it and he did it.  Reading is now our daily tradition.  He is reading the twins books to them.  I couldn't be prouder.

It is hard having such a big boy but he still my little Harmon who sleeps with his dolly and gives me kisses.  When Chris and I had separated this year it broke my heart so much because he understood that our family had changed.  I feel guilty for that, but I am also proud of him because he stood up and just really helped me every day.  Getting everyone ready, pouring milk for the twins cereal while I was in the shower, clicking the babies into the car seat, etc.  He is one day going to be an amazing father and husband one day if he keeps this up.  In the mean time I'm glad things are a little more stable and now he can go back to be more of a little boy.  


This time taught us both how much love runs deep.  Everyday I think God for my little man!  And he is still just as cute.  You can see from this video in the parking lot waiting for soccer practice.  My apologies for my thumb.  It is a new camera.  Enjoy his cuteness singing and making his cute faces :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSJgrVICaQo&feature=share&list=UU91zhiz8PpVw8K80S4HGsBg