Lilacs

I might be weird but certain smells sometimes remind me of things from the past. The smell of lilacs reminds me of my childhood. We had a lilac bush growing up and my dad often had a vase of lilacs on the table. So, to this day i love the smell of lilacs! And now right outside my front door we have a huge lilac bush which at this time of year smells wonderful. The little kids have been bringing me little branches of lilacs, along with dandelions and some other little "flowers" they find in the yard and i have been keeping them in this little cup by my kitchen sink.

I tried disposing of some of the dead ones the other day much to one particular little girls dismay and ended up retrieving them from the trash can and putting them back in the cup. This morning i went out and got a handful of the lilacs and hopefully she will just think that hers "grew up"! We are going to go with that!

With pollen counts so high this spring i am amazed at how well my two girls have been doing with their allergies (knocking on wood!) But i am extremely happy!

Enjoy the smell of the spring lilacs or whatever your favorite flowery smell is...

PBS

Raegan's new favorite thing to do is to play on PBS kids. I lvoed how she had her blanket right there with her this day...

One more quarter of school! I am probably more excited for summer than the kids! We have been keeping busy. I took the kids to my parents over spring break last week. They played non stop with cousins and of course the week flew by!

Trey is still having a lot of knee pain. When i took him to the doctor they referred him to see a sports medicine dr so we have an appointment tomorrow. They thought they may want to do some physical therapy for him to help him be able to play some of the sports he would like to play. He started track yesterday and we are signing up for another session of basketball so he may need that physical therapy! :) He is growing like crazy which the doctor said dos not help this problem with the knees (Osgood Schlaetters) excuse that spelling, i'm quite sure it's wrong!

Waiting on our letter from the school district to find out if Avery get's approved for a transfer for middle school to go where Trey goes. If it is denied we are taking all 4 and moving them. (unless of course God opens a door for us to move into the district where they currently go)We are at peace and have prayed for God's will regarding whatever happens. The kids all know this is a strong possibility (due to a district wide problem and them getting really strict). The Two oldest have accepted it, Avery is actually excited about the possibility of a new adventure. It would be hardest on Trey because it would be his last year in middle school. Regardless of what happens i know everything will be ok. I stress much less than i used to about it!

John has been side job free for a few weeks now and it has been nice to have him around again. I am very spoiled. I went for a run yesterday late afternoon and when i got home dinner was on the table! He has been having high blood pressure again. He worries me sometimes. He has been eating right for the most part and is not a big stresser. He has been exercising too so not sure where the problem lies but i am thinking it is time for another visit to the dr. In the past he has had high blood pressure but them it was good for awhile...his allergies are bugging him a lot and it was last spring that his bp was high too. No idea if that could affect blood pressure but something i am going to check on.

I am training for a half marathon that i plan to run in April. I am shooting to get a new personal record and i have at least 3 shots at it this next 6 months so i have been training pretty hard and John has put up with it and been supportive as always. I joined a local running club and have really enjoyed running with them on the weekends.

That is just a little of what we have been up to. Hope you are having a great rainy (if you live around here) week!

George Washington

In school each day Ethan writes in what they call their journals. I always enjoy the monthly journals coming home so that i can see what he wrote about. Sometimes it is what he did the past weekend. Sometimes it is about something they learned.

I just love George's hair! I have limited much of what i save in papers that the kids bring home from school...i save occasional papers that i think they might want to look back on to see what they were learning at the time, but their journals are always a must save!

This and that

I am going to go pre-enroll my youngest child in kindergarten tomorrow... it's starting to hit me a little bit. I am going to be a wreck next August on her first day. She is more than ready, i am ready and looking forward to having a few hours to myself everyday but the reality that all the kids will be in school....there is of course a little sadness that my days of having a little one home with me all day are quickly coming to an end.

Poor Taylor Swift, Raegan was making her beautiful but ran into a little snag...

Trey just finished up playing basketball with some of his buddies from school through the Y. He is having a really hard time with his knees right now. I finally took him to the doctor and they said he has Osgood Schlatters. Ibuprofen has been his good friend lately! He will be starting track soon.

This is what our kitchen table looks like every afternoon. Avery sits at the table to do her homework. Trey has a desk in his room so his books get spread out in there. I do not often have to tell her to get on her homework. She is always on it right away. I have recently had a lot of refreshing of the memory of 5th grade math! Who knew it would be like going to school all over again once you had to start helping with homework. The kids get frustrated with us sometimes and think we should know all the answers and i say "do you guys know how long it has been since we have done this??" And besides that they do everything different now anyway!

Can you guess what we got? We recently surprised the kids with a game system so there has been a lot of hopping around going on in our living room!

Have a great weekend!

Winterjam

Last Friday i snatched Avery from school a little early, dropped the other kids off at home and she and i headed down the the Sprint Center for Winterjam! My sister and her daughter didn't get in last year before they closed the doors so we went with a plan b for the night but once we got there and joined my sister in line we were pretty confident we would get in since we were right outside the doors! :) This was the line behind us...

Avery was excited to get to hang out with one of her friends that she doesn't get to see too much during the winter months. They had so much fun dancing, screaming and of course singing! (and playing with their popcorn)

The night included...Newsong, Building 429, For God and Country, Kari Jobe, Sanctus Real, Peter Furler (mine and Avery's favorite), and Skillet (Avery's least favorite of the night because "they are just too over the top, mom") and more that i am sure i am leaving out.

I had so much fun with my girl. We will be doing it again for sure! I think some of the rest of the family might join us next year too!

Strings festival

Last Thursday both Trey and Avery participated in the ONW Strings Festival.

This was their first concert together and will probably be their last.

The fifth graders got to spend the whole afternoon there practicing and eating pizza

Avery is loving playing the violin. She is very happy she switched from the flute.

She is a goofball...

The concert included 5th grade through high school. They all performed separately and then they all performed a song together which sounded great!

This was the 6th and 7th graders

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If you have commented on my blog and it doesn't show up, i promise i am not deleting them. Several comments have disappeared and i have no idea why. Not sure what's going on...probably a glitch...

Valentines Day

Again, behind on my blogs...

Last week for Valentines Day i went and partied with the kindergartners in the morning...

sweets of course...

a little bingo...

a cute craft...

And then in the afternoon it was back to the 5th grade party. I didn't get very good pictures of Avery. She was having a rough day and wasn't really in the mood for pictures but i did snap a couple of the games...

piecing a cereal box cover together...

When John got home from work i went on a run and when i got home this was on the table. The sweetest thing was that half of this dozen were for Avery. I think her Daddy accomplished making her feel special!

We went out as a family for dinner and then we snuck (ok not really snuck) out a little later just the two of us after the younger kids were in bed (there are some perks to having a teenager in the house!) It was a very nice Valentines Day. Thankful for my family and love them all very much!

Big Sis/Little Sis

We had to make a trip to the mall tonight to pick up a little something for some 13 year old who may or may not have a valentine this year. Avery was being extremely sweet with her younger siblings and wanted to spend some of her money on them.

We stopped by the store that is any 11 yr old girl's dream...Claire's! She bought Ethan a light up bouncy ball and she bought her and Raegan necklaces with a heart that fit together. Her part says big sis and Raegan's says little sis.

The best part of the night for me was watching Raegan on the escalators. It is so obvious we don't frequent the mall since that girl was born! Oh and next best was her little stop off at the Abercrombie little "porch" while she took the opportunity since the music was loud to "get down" and dance!

We then came home and got the kid's valentines ready to take to school. I really like nights like tonight! All except for the late night homework that neither Avery nor Mom understands...thank goodness for relatives that are good at math...this time we made a late night call to Grandpa Neir and he saved the night from complete melt down disaster! Thanks Grandpa!

Random

Haven't had much to blog about the last week or so. Just been keeping busy with life in general! Between my two jobs and John's hours, plus side jobs that he is still working on it seems like we just never slow down!

I have always been one to be always on the go. I never used to want to stay home. Now, i crave a night at home with absolutely nothing to do! Anytime we get one of those nights we take full advantage...i'm still waiting on one!

Here are some random pictures that i have snapped over the last week...the only pictures i have taken in the last week so it wasn't hard to choose...

Daddy helped Ethan with one of his 100th day of school projects. 100 cheerios!

I came in to our room last night and saw this. I thought it was pretty sweet... they were watching a Star Wars cartoon...

Raegan, Raegan Raegan...and all her "messes"! Beside the nickname "tornado" she has also become "the bag lady" Any empty container, bag box, laundry basket, item that holds things she will fill up with "stuff" quicker than you can blink! We always know where to look for missing items. They are usually packed into one of her bags! She usually is the culprit of all things missing around the house and many times will take us right to it but a lot of times just can't seem to remember what she did with it! One of my biggest pet peeves is clutter and all of her bags of stuff to me = clutter so i don't handle it quite as well as i should and empty them just as fast as i can. I do allow her to have one little bag of "stuff by her bed so i have started just consolidating all things from other bags into that bag.

Please tell me i am not the only one who cannot keep my couch pillows the one place they belong! They are CONSTANTLY on the floor and it drives me batty! They are weapons, stepping stones, parts of forts...you name it!

Well i am off to help supervise Raegan to clean up her mess...she get's very overwhelmed and says "but i need help". I remember Avery going through this stage and having to teach her to just do one thing at a time. Avery does super at cleaning now so there is hope for my little bag lady!

Celebrating

Avery was chomping at the bit to get home and open her birthday box on her day...

so she wasn't thrilled when we had to make a stop off at Walmart and even less thrilled when while at Walmart we got a call from Trey and he has missed his bus to Crown Center for his Orchestra trip. We FINALLY made it home after being stuck in traffic for awhile on the way home.

Avery does not like cake. She took brownies for her class treat and just wanted ice cream for her candles at home.

and of course she had to have her spankings and a pinch to grow on...

Then on Friday she had her party with her friends. It was pizza Street and Laser tag. After watching Trey play on his birthday she had decided that is what she wanted to do with her friends. They played four games and had a great time!

crazy girls

Confused

It's a confusing winter here in the midwest! I am not complaining one little bit! We are a warm weather loving family and the kids told me this morning they didn't care if we didn't get any snow this year. Raegan has broken out her flip flops and is going to be quite disappointed if i have to go hiding them again.

I spent 4 days in bed with the flu this past week and am so happy to be feeling alive again this week! I am now playing catch up big time!

If you ever are considering having January babies, i don't suggest having two in January! It always makes for a crazy month right after the crazy month before...oh heck, what month isn't crazy?!

Ladybug is 11

11 years ago, January 24, 2001 Avery Michelle was born weighing in at 9lb 2 oz.

She had a bunch of hair which made her look older than she was. And then the little booger took off walking at 8 months. Now seeing her personality it doesn't surprise me....she knows what she wants and she goes for it!

early on her daddy started calling her lady bug and it has stuck. He bought her a little lady bug necklace last year and she loved it!

She has always been pretty feisty and strong willed...still is! She may look like me but she has her daddy's personality and is quite the daddy's girl!

She does well in school and is very self motivated. I rarely have to get on her to get stuff done. She gets right on her homework and most of the time get's everything taken care of.

She is going to be going off to middle school next year which while looking at these pictures makes me sad...

She is loving taking gymnastics and can flip around all over the place

She has a warm heart and is learning this year how to manage friendships...fifth grade can be challenging with friends and it has been but it has been a work in progress and for the time being it seems her little group of close friends is getting along nicely. I am proud of her and some of the things she has done to help situations.

She is getting very tall, catching me quickly! It seems like not long ago she was just barely tall enough to ride the Patriot for the first time...

She is very particular and keeps her room as clean as she can with little tornado living in the same space. She can't wait to get her first pair of high heels and thinks her mom should wear them way more than i do!

Her new favorite past time is texting her friends on my phone...lol, gtg, brb, k ...you know regular 5th grade conversations :)

Avery you are becoming quite the beautiful young lady and we are so very proud of you and all your hard work in school and all that you do. Happy Birthday! We love you!