April/May

Well, I'll have to pull out the calendar to see what's been going on these last 2 months.

Birthday time. Daniella, Matt, Baylie, and Charlie have had their birthday.

We visited CocoKeys indoor water park and all had a blast. Daniella went down her first water slide and loved it. That's amazing in itself because usually everything new scares her to death. Charlie and Truman went down the slides for the first time too. Wish I would have remembered my camera.

B, J, and Z went to work with Matt for "Take your child to work day." Truman had to sit out this year, he didn't do so well last year........as in hitting a recruit in the head with a night stick.....not a proud parent moment. Now, mind you, many of the children were messing around/wrestling/competing with the recruits, but T. had his own idea. Well, hopefully T. can go next year. I think our point was made by keeping him out this year.

Now, this year. Matt's(my husband) boss decided to show off his skills. He competed with Zarah at hand stands and flips....the boss landed flat on his back on one of his flips. hehehe The boss allowed all the kids to "punch me in the stomach as hard as you can". Baylie and Zarah took it easy on him, but Jack thought this was an open invitation. Well, after Jack's punch (remember he was in boxing for awhile) the boss kind of doubled over a little bit and got one of those "that really hurt" looks on his face, but tried not show it. He laughed it off. Matt, of course, felt compelled to say "now Jack, not so hard" , while in his head was saying "yeah, good job!"
The girls got to ride on the police horses. Of course, Zarah loved that. She has decided Matt needs to join the mounted patrol division before he retires. :) I think most of her reasoning is so she can go ride the horse.

Daniella, at her neurodevelopmental evaluation this time, went up 7 months in her reading comprehension part. Yeah!

After the big tornado wiped out 75% of Joplin, Mo. We got our turn the next week. Our tornado was smaller and didn't touch down by us, but 2 of them came over our area. We
were a little more concerned about it then usual; since the week before was when Joplin got hit.

Matt got a new to us suburban in Denver. We really like it, but a week after buying it the transmission went out. Uugghh!! That same week our "german shepherd puppy" jumped on the sliding door and knocked it in the house right onto Truman's bike that was upside down with the front wheel off (since we were changing his tire tube). You know how that turned out. Yes, a bazillion pieces of broken glass. That took about an hour to clean up. When it rains it pours.

I think that's about it for the last 2 months.
talk to you later,
Vickie

February/March

I have learned several things these last few weeks:
--it is possible for a friend's puppy to pull a laptop off the table requiring the computer to be in the repair shop for a month
--an entire family with varying degrees of RSV can result in a couple of trips to urgent care
--just when you think things might settle down, leave it to a certain accident prone almost 6 year old to go and get a laceration on his arm that requires 7 stitches
--as demonstrated by a small brother, one can always sit on a baby sisters rapidly moving legs to help him get her diaper on :)
--be thankful for good neighbors and enjoy your time together because the time comes too quickly when they have to move away :(

Hope you all are doing well.
until next time,
Vickie

December/January

Guess I should tell about our December/January events. For Christmas ,the children searched around the house for the perfect gift to give their siblings. Jack decided to make everyone something out of duct tape. Yes, a gun, backpack, cell phone holder, $20 bill, purse,wallet, etc. can all be successsfully made out of duct tape. He mentioned next he wants to make a suit out of duct tape to wear to church. That would be interesting and give people there something to talk about on the way home. hmmmmmm What do you say to that? Umm, "I don't think your suit will be warm enough in this winter weather." By spring he will surely forget about his master plan. :)



Let's see, other actitivities going on:

-- sledding, building cool igloos, making a fort out of mom's kitchen cabinets, playing fooz ball/ bopit, and building with blocks.

-- Baylie along with many other children put on a great musical, "Singin in the Rain". We all really enjoyed it. There are still days where someone bursts out in one of the songs.

--2 people injured their arm (a hyperextension and sprain) All are mended now.

--various winter illnesses:a few strains of the flu and some colds

--We enjoyed 3 great Christmas's with different family members. Always fun to get together, provided we don't over stay our visit. If we go past the alotted time there is crying, whining, fighting and other various activities that do not ehibit our parenting skills/ weekly character training/and regular child training in general. You can tell when our time is up.
-- New Years Eve was fun. Matt had to work, but the rest of us played various games and had several competitions......sit ups, push ups, splits, stand on one leg, etc. We'll just say mom's body is not quite back into tip top shape after her delivery in Sept. uuhhmmm. Needless to say, mom didn't win many of the contests. Then the annual drinking of the sparking grape juice.
That about sums up our last couple of months. Hope you all are doing well and staying warm. Until next time.....

Here are a few videos from Zarah's last meet. Sorry it is so shaky. Forgot to give those directions to the camera girl.

Annual Zoo Visit

Great day to visit the zoo. It was nice and sunny out. Since we only had about 3 hours, a certain couple of young men not staying with us....leading to us trying to locate the 2 independent lads, mother wanting to take numerous pictures, etc., etc. not much of the zoo was viewed today. We may have to make a 2nd attempt soon.





The new exhibit this year is the polar bear. He was very entertaining.


Here are a few activities we did make it to:

A couple people rode the carousel.

Some animals were fed.

We saw the big cow statue,

some otters,

elephants,

and deer.

Tractors were ridden.

We all enjoyed being outside.

Dan and Daniella showed more interest in the animals this year.

The difference in Dan this year was huge. Last year he rode in the stroller for the entire time; except when I made him walk for a little bit at the end. He put up major resistance the entire time he was walking. ................ This year he walked the entire time we were at the zoo. This is HUGE for him!!!! It makes it soooooo much easier for mom. Yeah Dan!!!! We did have to walk at a little bit slower pace, but hey I'm just fine with that. He has changed a lot since last year. (talking, walking longer distances). It is so great to watch both of them change/develop.

By the end of the time, we were all a little bit tired.

Family

We love when family come to visit. This last weekend we got to see all 3 groups of the grandparents. Great time. Here are some photos from one of the visits. Their 1st time to meet Addie.











Here is a photo of Addie at 6 weeks and me at 10 weeks..........I think I see a little bit of resemblance. Yeah!!












Have a blessed day,
Vickie

Truman's solution

Here is a video of one of Jack's boxing rounds that he fought in last Saturday. He is in blue.

Also, our newest addition Addie is 6 weeks old now. While riding in the van to drop off her sibling at his activity, she begins crying. I ask Truman, one of our 5 year olds, to help Addie with her binky/pacifier. He says she doesn't want it. She cries for a few seconds; then stops crying. There is another episode of her crying for a few seconds; then she stops. Next I hear Truman say, "don't worry Mom; I can fix her". To which I reply, "she's taking her binky now, huh?" pause.........Truman "no mom, I think she likes my banana better." YIKES !!! Not a good thing.

Have a great day,

Vickie