winter

This week we've had the winter I love.  It's warm (around freezing) and the kids are able to play outside as much as they want to without freezing.  They've been having so much fun out there building tunnels and sledding down some big drifts we got a while ago.  Even the little kids are having fun on the sleds and running around.

This last weekend I took our kids skating again too and it was so nice out.  Kason is starting to skate a little bit and it's nice that he's having fun out there.  Anika is slowly improving and is pretty much running on ice now. :) I've been trying to show her to glide her feet but she just keeps walking and running.  But at least she's having fun and is trying.  Kade has gotten a lot better too and we only went skating a couple times this year.  His buddies from church were at the rink with their dad playing hockey and Kade was in heaven having someone to play sports with him.  After a long time Kason and Ani got tired so they got their boots on and were running around and so I joined the boys in hockey and man, was that fun!  Kim (he's a friend of ours that was there) is really good and fast so he gave me a good workout skating back and forth the rink.  And the boys were surprisingly pretty good too, they're getting better at skating.  Then for 2 days after that I felt muscles in my legs I haven't felt for years. :)  I guess hockey is a really good sport for exercise.  It reminded me of the winters growing up when we would go with our friends and parents skating on the ponds close by.  My brothers always played hockey so I joined in once in a while and now I'm so glad I did and can do that with my son.  It's just so good for kids to have fun outside with friends like that.  I wish in our community we had more of that and less of organized sports that are so expensive, competitive and many times very unfair because so many times it is the same kids that get the opportunity to play while the rest sit on the sidelines wishing they could just play the game.  I guess it's up to us to make it happen but it's hard when it's not a priority for many kids and families.

  

clothes

Today for some reason I started thinking about clothes and kids.  I've had several conversations with friends lately about their kids in middle school and how much they struggle with fitting in, girls especially.  I am angry and outraged at what we as a society have come to.  We teach our kids that they have to look the best if they are to be successful.  They care so much about the brands of clothes they wear and if they're one of those that can't afford them they feel self conscious and like they're somehow less.  And the kids at that age are so mean on top of that.  They say comments like :"oh, you couldn't afford shoes like these" or they make fun of other kids' clothes.  If it were up to me I would order everyone to start wearing uniforms to school.  It would be cheaper for parents and kids would have one less thing to worry about when they go to school.

We are starting to see it with our Kade, how he wants to wear the clothes certain way because that's what other boys do, just following the crowd attitude so we're trying to talk to him about it.  Luckily, he could care less about what brand his clothes are for now .  I buy most of them at a second hand store or places like walmart and to him, it doesn't matter where it comes from he gets excited about a new shirt or even socks every time. :) It makes me happy to see that even though I've been having different kinds of clothes issues with Kade.

Even though I try to get clothes as cheap as I can with a good enough quality that they don't fall apart right away, I like to dress our kids nicely and that's the problem.  Kade does not want to look nice, the worse he looks the better, is what it seems to me anyway. :) He has his 2 favorite pants (with holes all over the knees) and 2-3 favorite T shirts and he'd be happy if he could just wear those every single day and then sleep in those shirts too.  He would just wear one shirt all week if I let him but he knows that's against the rules :).  Anyway, maybe there are a lot of boys like that and it kind of reminds me of one of my brothers growing up.  But it's frustrating when I look for the best deals on cute long sleeve shirts/sweaters since our winter lasts forever and all he wears is the same Tshirt over and over. :)

Luckily our Anika hasn't discovered her strong opinions about clothes yet and for now pretty much wears whatever I give her which is such a gift. :)  I really hope it lasts.  I do ask her sometimes which shirt/pants or whatever so she does pick but for the most part she lets me pick out what to wear.  And if she dresses by herself for church and it totally doesn't match, she hasn't fought me once yet to change and put something on that goes together so I am very thankful for that.

And then we have Kason who right away at 2 years old wanted to pick what to wear and he had a period when he would change his clothes 2-3 times a day because he liked them all. :)  At least he listens to me as far as colors not matching or wearing the wrong pants but the outfit has to be his pick or else he won't wear it. :)  So I'm guessing we have another Kade on our hands soon, but maybe he'll be dressed a little better because he likes to wear a different shirt every day.

It is just funny how much of our life we spend on clothes, thinking about clothes, buying clothes, fixing clothes and worrying about right or wrong clothes. :)  I just hope we can teach our kids that no matter what they wear, clothes they wear do not make them who they are and what really matters is what's inside.

Valentine's Day

Well, it must be one of our most pathetic Valentine's Days yet. :)  Not that we try to make a big deal of it, Ehren and I don't even go on dates on Valentine's Days.  But usually I do try to make things special for us and the kids. And I still tried today but now as I sit here I'm thinking I shouldn't have tried so hard when obviously we are all a bit under the weather.  Especially me!  I've been sick since Sunday and even though yesterday I thought I was getting better today I got up feeling worse than ever, throat swollen and hurting a lot.  But, I was not going to let that stop me from my Valentine's plans.  What was I thinking? :)

I had all the kids here today and since some of them were gone before we didn't get to work on our Valentine crafts before today.  So of course we had to get that done today, you can't go to daycare and not come home with at least one Valentine's card. :)  So one by one I took the little kids to do the hand print crafts, then some other finger painting hearts and stuff.  It really doesn't take too long but the kitchen was a mess afterwards.  One of our Valentine's traditions with the kids is to have a special Valentine's snack in the afternoon, after the kids come home from school.  So, I was busy getting some of that ready plus getting a dinner ready so we could have a nice dinner together as a family, with a special dessert too.  Well, as we are about to have a snack with all the kids my little niece threw up.  I was just walking towards her when she was about to do it on the carpet so I quickly scooped her up and brought her over to the toilet.  Poor thing didn't feel good at all.  Anika threw up 2 days ago too so I know it is some bug going around at our house.  Kason and I got it first and had bad fevers for about a day.  And even though he's been doing a lot better during the day, even today he fell asleep on his bed before dinner time and is probably going to sleep until morning.  It is just really wiping us out and I knew it was just a matter of time before it got me too. :)

So, even though the kids were all very excited to get their Valentines at school and have a special snack, it just wasn't the same as when we're all feeling healthy.  Nobody was really hungry for dinner either so all that effort I put into it seems a bit pointless now.

On the bright side, when everyone else is not feeling so great, little Kinley I watch had probably the best day yet.  She's the baby that cries for her mom or me most of the day.  Today, she calmed down right away, took nice naps and when she was up she just laughed and giggled with the other kids.  So yey!  Something good happened today. :)

No, even though it seems pointless so many times, I still wouldn't change anything and wouldn't stop trying.  It's who I am and keeping our little traditions alive means a world to me.  And hopefully some day they'll mean a world to our kids. :)

Hope you are all staying healthy!

one of the crafts we made - this one is for nana

Kade's Valentine's Box

Teachers' Valentines

snack time minus 3 kids

Finally we get a smoothy for snack :)  We only get those in the summer

poor Aveah after she threw up

sick kids

Normally, when you think of sick kids you feel really bad for them and their moms and dads because it takes extra energy to take care of the kids while most of the times the parents get the virus from their little ones.  I don't ever wish on someone's kids to be sick but ironically, the best blessing for me these days is when one of the daycare kids is sick.  I feel bad for the little ones and the parents but at the same time I'm smiling inside because it means a much easier day depending on who is sick. :)

So this week has been one of those - easier and quieter because 2 little boys were sick.  They weren't gone the whole week but even just one day here and there of less kids makes a huge difference.  At the same time, I usually end up getting something from them and this whole week I think my body is fighting something because I have had no energy and am ready to go to bed at 8 with our kids.  So I think in a way God knows how tired I am this week and this is His way of lightening my load for me.  Makes you think how many times other people's troubles, little or small, can be someone else's blessing.  Hopefully I remember it next time something frustrating happens to me because maybe in that moment there is someone who's being blessed because of my misfortune. :)

Happy Weekend to everyone!  More snow on the way for us and we're hoping to do some sledding and playing outside.      

Kason and his best buddy Carsten

another year older...

Well, yesterday was my real birthday.  We have to say that quite often - real birthday.  That's because now I have a fake birthday, March 2nd that legally I have to go by.  I think I wrote about it on here some time ago.  Ehren made a comment the other day how not only do I have 2 wedding days to go by, now I also have 2 birthdays. :)

But it was such a nice birthday weekend.  Ehren was so awesome and tried really hard to make it special.  First he got me some yellow tulips for me and so Anika didn't feel left out Ehren got her some pretty flowers too (don't know the name of them :)).  I think him doing that touched me so much more than me getting flowers.  Anika was so excited and proud of her real flowers and showed them to everyone that came over and stills shows them to whoever hasn't seen them.  He's such a good dad and knows how to make Ani feel special.

On Saturday Ehren and I went on a date to Grand Forks and we tried an Italian restaurant.  It was a tiny place with maybe 10 tables but the food was really good, real Italian food versus a chain kind of restaurants.   It was just a nice time alone, which we don't get too much other than after the kids are in bed and by then we're usually both pooped. :)

Then yesterday (Sunday) it was a bit cold but not very windy and the sun was shining nicely.  Kids played outside for a long time which I was so thankful for and I even got to use my cross country skis - finally this year.  Whenever I had a chance to do it it was either way too cold or we didn't have snow.  So I was loving being able to go out there and ski.  I got pretty sweaty too, probably because I was sinking in the snow and had to work extra hard.  It got easier after I would follow the path I made in the snow, but it would be nice to get a snowmobile to make a track for me to ski on.  So, at least I can say I skied this winter :) and really it was like I got the perfect weather just for my birthday.

We also had Ehren's parents over for dinner yesterday and watched a little bit of the super bowl.  It was very nice to just sit and visit with them.  Ehren and Ani made me a cake (with a bit of supervision by me :)) and Ani was so excited to celebrate my birthday.  So all in all, I had a great birthday weekend.  Getting older is easy when you're surrounded by so many people that love you. :)

Ehren printed out these cute "cards" from each of the kids.  It was a picture of Kade and Anika at 1 years old with a cute note about them.  I loved Kason's card the best because he really is my little superhero.  I can see now how moms tend to be so soft-hearted with their last baby.  Sometimes I have to catch myself and think if I'm babying him too much or if I'm being too soft with him.  It's just so hard not to when he gets so excited to see me every morning, hugs me tightly and says over and over how much he loves me. :)  I love each one of them, but I see how quickly they grow up like Kade has so I want to hold on to Kason as long as I can, while he's still my little boy.  Then again, I know I have to remember Kade might act like he doesn't care and that he's mr. independent, but he's still a little boy who needs his mom very much.