Sunday, January 25, 2015

Dahlquist visitors

In Janurary Scott and Trish Rafferty, Shauna and Al and Heidi Jorgensen and Joyce Dahlquist went on a cruise out of Galveston. They flew in Saturday around noon and spent the afternoon/evening with us. We had Torchy's Tacos and watched football and then had potato soup for dinner. So fun to see them all.


 Lexey was obsessed with Scott.

Lexey took pictures of everyone














We skyped with scott so he could tell us the gender of his baby






Saturday, January 24, 2015

ohio state victory

We had the Scott's over to watch some Ohio State football. Fun stuff!



Jo and Warren sharing video games.

"hi soren" "hi soren" "hi sor  baby"



 baby nolan


Clare took these candid shots. We got a GOOD laugh about them afterwards.
 Go lexey go.


Some  future blackmail. Not sure what happened to dave here.
 Apparently Myles stood up right as Clare took the picture.




Then Lexey took the camera
Mandy and Madelyn


Soren. There were about 30 more of soren. Lexey loves Soren.


Remy

Thursday, January 22, 2015

life

#1. We are having some major back to school blues (clare). Didn't help that she was super sick for a week and missed a week of school. Trying to re-establish bed time routine, piano, homework, etc. How can this be so hard after just a two week break?  I am thinking year round school would not work for me. It used to sound very appealing.

#2. Job hunt time. We are obsessed. It is tiring and stressful. Interviews at three places this month. I am hoping it all gets wrapped up quick. I am getting impatient and Dave will have a little less stress in his life once it's wrapped up.

#3. A friend talked me into running a 5k with her. We're doing the couch to 5k program. It's pretty easy but gives me something to think about and work towards. With my surgery and then a run of sick kids I haven't been working out as often as I like.

#4. I am feeling baby hungry. Maybe this is a result of the surgery and thinking "what if I could never have kids again?" don't know. Dave hopes it passes quickly. Lexey has been begging for a baby forever and is thrilled at the prospect. Clare wants a new puppy and Calvin wants a cat.

#5. We also started and couples book club. Our first book is One Hundred years of solitude.

#6. I love homeschooling lexey. She is an angel. Today she sent me this email : dear mommy, i love homeschooling with you.love, Alexey   The best thing about homeschool is that we get all her work done in the  best time of day and don't have to worry about piano and homework in the evening. She gets so much attention and one on one time her cup is very full.  She is so happy and fun to be with.

#7.  We are loving our life. I still hate Houston, but we are happy here. It might seem like those are contradictory statements so let me explain. Houston SUCKS. Schools are terrible, getting a prescription filled is a 3 hour ordeal and requires driving all over town. The mailman doesn't come some days, the bus doesn't come some days.  However, we love our neighborhood, our friends here and our life here (minus the above mentioned items).

#8. Paying tons for my surgery. $500 deductible and then 25% of the bills. Out of pocket maximum will be $5000 but we might get up to that point. Such a bummer. So expensive! And it happened in Dec so if I have other expenses this year we'll start over again with the deductible and out of pocket maximum.

#9. Clare decided she wasn't enjoying dance much so we stopped that. She is excited for swim lessons in the spring and then we'll do soccer in the fall.

#10. Lex is begging to play voilin. I told her she needs to do 2 years of piano first and then she can start.  She will do swim in the spring and then soccer next fall also.

#11. Jo is kind of like a 3 year old terrorist. Super daring but super demanding.

#12. Been catching up on Downton Abbey season 5. Love it!

#13. Booked a vacation for March in Destin with two other families.

#14. We had our first "I don't want to move back to California" this week. Jo said, "I don't want to move back to California, I'm going to miss Mandy too much!"  Today Jo was telling Dave that "if mommy dies it will be okay. You can marry mandy."  Mandy is our next door neighbor. She's an angel. Jo is obsessed. From the minute she wakes up she asks to go see Mandy and we tell her that they're still alseep, which buys us a few hours!  When the weather is good she will sneak over and peek in the window. Luckily Madelyn really loves Jo's company so it works out well to spend a lot of time together.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

door knob broke

A couple of weeks ago Jo's door knob broke. She was stuck inside her room and the door wouldn't open. We tried unscrewing the door knob and removing it but it was stuck. We told Jo how to open the window so she could crawl out and Dave could crawl in. I wish I had taken more pictures but didn't think of it 'til Dave was most of the way in.






We were able to hand Dave tools under the door.



IT took about an hour but Dave finally got the door off. Then we had to put on a new door knob so Jo could have her room back to normal. I was lucky Dave was randomly home that afternoon for a couple of hours to help me! Not sure what I would have done without him!

Thursday, January 15, 2015

potty treats

Jo is back to being almost potty trained. After our big move this summer and several scary rest stop and gas station potty breaks Jo had decided not to use the toilet anymore. We put her back in diapers  for a couple of months and then recently decided to try again with the potty. I got some potty treats, tic tacs, mini m&m's and regular M&M's on various occasions. She was really good about going potty, washing hands and then getting herself a treat. She loved it.  It worked great. This week I ran out, but figured she goes so consistently she doesn't really need treats anymore.  Jo didn't think so! After going potty, she said, "I need a treat!" I told her I was out but that'd I look around for what I have. I was hoping she'd move along and forget about it but she kept coming back and asking for something!  She loves her treats!  I found a bag of rolos so I gave her a rolo. She was IN LOVE!!  She went potty about 15 more times that day just to get a treat! (Normally she only goes 4 or 5 times a day). Love my cutie. Jo is dry in the morning most days. However, she still won't go poo on the potty. She comes and asks for a diaper and then poops in the diaper. I've tried getting her BIG prizes for going poo and she gets excited about it at the store but then won't even try once we get home.  So, we're waiting for that final part but happy she's moving forward otherwise.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

blankie obsessed

Last night Jo couldn't find her "pink mimi" before bed and was crying in her bed so Lexey offered to let Jo use one of her special blankets. Lex is very sweet. Jo was grateful to have it and went to bed. An hour later Lex wasn't able to fall asleep without her mimi so we snuck in and took it from Jo who was already asleep. Then Lex went to bed. Sometime in the middle of the night Jo woke up crying because she couldn't find Lexey's blanket in her bed....so I snuck over and got it from Lexey.  At 7 this morning, Lexey came into my room crying because she "couldn't sleep all night because she couldn't find her mimi"!! What a circus this house is!  It's been a full 24 hours and we still can't find Jo's mimi. Hopefully it turns up soon. We miss it!

Also, Lexey has lost two pairs of shoes in the last few weeks! I hope those turn up too!

Sunday, January 4, 2015

New Years Eve

We had the funnest New Year's Eve I think we have ever had. We aren't much of late night people so usually we just go to bed. Plus Dave s always working New Years since he is one of the few people who doesn't care about drinking.

This year our neighbor's invited us to do a new years party with them.  The families involved in planing were Mike and Mandy Hansen who live directly next door to us, and Myles and Rishelle Scott who live a few blocks away. We decided it'd be fun to have the kids at my house and the adults at the Hansens. We tried to get a babysitter to come hang with the kids but then when that didn't work out we decided the kids were old enough to fend for themselves since we were just a few steps away. We kept Calvin with us, watching his choice of a movie so he didn't have to be in a girl dominated world. We left Brinley (age 10) and Clare (age 9) in charge of the others, with Lexey (age 6) and Ellie (age 7) as assistants. The older girls were very happy to have the responsibility and felt very important. We left a couple of cell phones with the girls so they could be in communication with us over small matters and told them that in the case of someone being hurt or in danger they could RUN over and get us.  Clare text a few times asking "can the kids have popcorn when they are done with dinner" and things like that. One time, Maddie got hurt (not seriously, just fell down) so they ran over to get us. It was SO GREAT.  At the adult house we had a sit down dinner WITH NO KIDS BOTHERING US and then played games and talked and talked. It was amazing.    The kids were happy the entire time. We marvelled at how, if the kids were with us, they would have needed attention and complained about various problems and yet without us there they did great on their own. We are all thinking we should make this a regular thing!  Also, the kids did not make any major messes and did a great job being very responsible. I am proud of them.

I put Jo to bed around 11pm (she had napped until almost 5 that afternoon), Calvin put himself to bed around 9:30pm. The Thuerer's went home about 11:30. The rest of us stayed up to dance in the new year and then go out into the street to bang pots and pans at midnight! The girls thought it was great. Clare was going strong. Lex was a little tired around 11:30 and probably could have fallen asleep if Mike and Myles hadn't started a dance party.

Adults:
Dave and Denise Gonda  (dave was on call but didn't get called in)
Mike and Mandy Hansen with baby Soren
Myles and Rishelle Scott with newborn Nolan
Matt and Rachel Thuerer

Kids
Calvin (11) Clare (9) Alexey (6) Jo (3) Gonda
Brinley (10) Ellie (7) Warren (4) Scott
Ella (8) and Peter (5) Thuerer


The next day my kids slept in much later than usual waking at 8:30 Calvin, 930 Jo, 10 Clare and 11 Alexey.