4th of July Week 2012

This year, tuna season started super early.  Mark's first trip out was June 23rd, and they caught 10.   Usually unheard before July!  Since the 4th fell in the middle of the week this year, we went down on a Thursday night, the weekend before.  Mark had big plans for another tuna trip on Saturday, but started feeling like he was coming down with something the day we left.  Remember how June was the month of sickness here?  Ugh, somehow, amazingly he hadn't caught it.  Well, he wasn't spared.  By Thursday night, he was super sick and popping pain meds for his throat.  Friday he was worse, and spent most of the day in bed.  Thankfully, Grammy and Papa were down for the week at their house so we spent most of the day there so that he could rest. 

Saturday's fishing trip was canceled, and Mark (barely able to talk, swallow or eat) decided that he'd better head into the Tillamook ER.  The older 3 kids stayed with G & P, while Teague and I took him in to the hospital.  It was a good thing we did.  The Dr. took one look at his throat and told Mark that had he waited much longer to come in, his tonsils would have abscessed, and he would have been looking at surgery!  The dr assumed strep, although wasn't able to take an official test due to how swollen his throat was, gave him a long list of prescription meds to get, and we were off.  It took just a day or two before the meds really started kicking in, and we were able to do some fun things as a family.

Oceanside


One of our favorite little towns along the Oregon Coast is Oceanside.  It's absolutely beautiful, has a laid back feel and a great beach to play on complete with a tunnel through the rocky cliff to another beach (Aspen's favorite).  The kids were super excited for the sunny weather, and the fact that they got to play in the ocean.

Teague 7 1/2 months

He loves the beach, and the feel of sand on his feet and in his toes.  But for a Mommy, he's not at an easy age to bring to the beach.  It takes just a couple minutes of playing, before handfuls of sand make their way to his mouth.  It's a mess every time!

Journey 5 1/2

Aspen 8

 Love them...  Quick pose before they were off and running into the water  :)

The beach here is much safer than in Rockaway.  I don't normally let them play in the ocean there when it's just me with four kids!

Seriously.  No words. 

Love my girls.

Love the look on Aspen's face  :)

Willow 2 1/2 - fun in motion

Teague's spot with me while we kept an eye on the kids in the water.

 Parade! 

Mark and both Papa's were tuna fishing for the 4th.  I am so thankful Grammy was here to come to the parade with us.  The kids had been looking forward to it for months, so we definitely weren't gonna miss it...even with Willow being sick

 Ready for the parade to start.

Aspen and Journey ready to get the candy.  Willow wasn't feeling good that day (I think strep), and spent most of the parade in the stroller.  I was secretly so proud of Aspen and Journey who made sure to fill her bucket with candy, and give her the best picks first (without being prompted).

Daddy's Boy

 Mark had been gone all afternoon at the docks getting ready for a fishing trip, and this was how Teague responded when he walked in....  oh my goodness..  How can you not just melt?  Such a sweet boy.


More fun on the beach....

 Aspen, Journey and I were able to go to the beach and take a walk while Teague and Willow napped at Grammy's beach house.  It was such a weird feeling to be walking down the beach with just them two.  It gave me a little vision into what life would have been like had we of stopped with Journey.   So different!  They are getting so much bigger and more independent.  We had no problem walking quite far (something I'd never do at this point with all four), talking the whole time about random things. 

He's such a boy!

June 2012

I think June can be summed up in three things...
School ends & Summer begins.  Beach.  Sickness hits the family.

Aspen finished up 2nd grade and was awarded the June character trait of Patience.

Summer begins...  

I was a little anxious about summer break.  Aspen is the kind of kid that needs lots of activity and stimulation.  Other than first thing in the morning, I don't generally allow the TV to be on, and restrict the Wii time to 45 minutes per day.  That leaves a lot of time to fill!  The girls, Teague and I had a sort of normal routine around here.  They were used to spending much of our time at home playing due to Teague's naps and feedings.  They don't get bored or really even bug each other very often. But when Aspen is thrown into the mix....  Yes, things don't go quite as peacefully!  He wants Journey to play with him at all times, but either he doesn't always play so nicely with her or they exclude Willow.  Both of which cause problems, arguments and some kind of interference from me once things go downhill.  The only thing I've come up with so far to help with this is creating daily work/chores for Aspen. 

Thankfully, being the age he's at, he's also had a lot of opportunities to do fun things:

Bill & Diana had him over to their house for 4 days with a couple of his other cousins.  They had a blast playing outside, sleeping in the tree fort (one night with Papa and one by themselves!), and earned $32 doing chores and hauling brush and tree limbs for Nana.

Sleepover at Peyton's house.  It was supposed to be at our house, but I got sick, and Charity offered to have him come to their house for the sleepover.  So nice since I was feeling so bad!

Sleepover with Peyton at our house.  Peyton and Aspen play so well together.  Aspen really loves and takes care of him.  Mark took the boys to the nickel arcade in the evening, and the rest of their time was spent playing outside, making forts, playing legos, and a little wii time.  When it came to bedtime, I went downstairs, as I always do, to check on the boys, pray with them and say goodnight.  I walked down to see them cuddled together on the floor with Aspen reading Peyton comic books.  It was adorable.

Camping, hiking and rock climbing trip with Daddy, Ryan, Papa, Aaron and William and Adam at Smith Rocks.  Since we aren't campers, I was thrilled that Aspen got the opportunity to go on this 'boys' camping trip.  He had a blast, and so did Mark :)

Beach Trip
Halibut season started at the beginning of May.  Mark did really well this year and limited out on each trip.  When he fishes, he generally only goes once a week on whatever day the weather is best.  The other days we are down at the beach we try to spend as a family doing fun things together.  Most of the time it's simple things like walking to the beach or going to the arcade, but one weekend in June, on a particularly nice day we took the family on a boat ride into the ocean and up to the cliffs by Manzanita.

 Once I moved from this position in the back of the boat (Aspen was really worried Teague would fly out of my arms into the water) to the front, Aspen calmed down, and even enjoyed himself!

 A seal!

I have to note, since this is something I'll probably forget, that Aspen is SUPER scared of going in the ocean.  Any time Mark asks him if he wants to go fishing or for a boat ride, it's a resounding NO!  Of course it's Mark's dream to someday fish with him and Teague so we are trying to 'condition' him into liking the ocean, haha

Group bath time!

Going to the beach requires a lot of baths for sandy kids  :)

Sickness...
Sometime in early June, maybe the first weekend?  Aspen came down with a severe sore throat.  Strep had been going around at school, so I watched his throat carefully for white spots.  I've never had strep, but had heard that you get white spots in your throat as a sign of strep.  He never got the white spots, so I had him on pain meds, gargling and taking lots of Vitamin C.  It took him a couple days, but he was over it pretty fast.  About a week later, Journey came down with it. It seemed about the same as Aspen, except she wasn't able to gargle, and it took her much longer, maybe a week or 10 days to go back to herself.  Of course, near the end of Journey's sickness, Willow came down with it.  And I was getting lower and lower on my patience level with someone always being sick and need, especially since the girls and Teague couldn't or didn't tell me they were feeling sick, they just started crying more and being needier...which looks a lot like fits and whining - something I can't stand and have no patience for!  Ugh.  Once I got it (the day before our 13th anniversary), I realized how bad they must have been feeling, and felt SO guilty for not being more patient and understanding.

Mark came down with it the last weekend of the month, while we were at the beach, and definitely got it way worse than the rest of us did.  After a few days spent in bed, trying to get a handle on it with gargling and tylenol, he realized he needed to head to the Tillamook ER to get checked out.  It was a good thing he did, because his tonsils were so infected and full of puss, they were closing off his throat and close to rupturing!  Poor guy, always gets it the worst!

Journey & Willow

Of all the kids, Journey has loved having a new baby the most.  For the first four or five months, she would fight me over who would hold him more.  Like, literally, try to pull him from my arms if I wouldn't hand him over and wanted to snuggle him myself.  She just couldn't get enough of him!

She is such a little mommy.  Totally loving and protective.  She can make him laugh and smile way more than any of the rest of the family can (including me, sniff!).  


I've also seen such growth in her relationship with Willow over the past year.  It makes me so happy to see them playing nicely, and actually having fun together.  This has definitely not been something that has just evolved or happened on its own.  Journey has a very independent personality.  She is completely happy playing on her own in her own play world.  In fact, every afternoon while Willow and Teague nap, she has her quiet time downstairs where she listens to Bible tapes and plays.  Occasionally, I will go downstairs to clean up or do laundry.  It really bugs her if she feels like I'm hanging around too long.  She will stop her play and wait till I leave.  If I don't leave quick enough, she will say, "Mom, when are you leaving??"  haha  

Willow has her own, shall we say, slightly challenging personality.  Definitely the strongest personality of the kids.  She is funny and witty.  She is loving and silly.  She loves to cuddle and is very affectionate.  She tells me all the time that "Mommy, you the best mommy in da whole world!"  She has the craziest sense of smell I've ever known someone to have.  She is fearless.  Completely fearless.  A couple months ago, (at 2 1/2) she decided to try out Journey's bike, jumped on and figured out the pedals.  Now it does have training wheels, but it's completely different and much bigger than her little trike. She took it to the top of our driveway (which is sloped), got on and pedaled it as fast as she could, then stuck her legs out and rode it down till she hit our car at the end of the hill.  Yep, she hadn't though about figuring out the brakes!

Aaaand she's moody and fiercely stubborn.  Dear Lord, she's stubborn.  When she's in a good mood, life is great.  When she's not, well, it's incredibly frustrating.  When she is in one of her "moods", there is nothing, nothing we can do to pull her out of it before she wants to.  Spanking, moving her to the bathroom or her room, taking privileges, nothing works until she chooses to let go of her bad mood.  It's very frustrating because the worst fits show up most often at bedtime....when we are tired and ready for quiet and to be done for the night.

Before we moved, each of the kids had their own rooms, so bedtime was never really an issue.  We would just shut each of their doors and let them talk themselves to sleep.  Now Journey and Willow share a room, bedtime has been an issue almost every night.  They talk to each other, Willow will get out of bed, run around the room, jump on her bed or change clothes.  When we go in to put a stop and hand out some discipline, it all goes downhill from there.  About a month after we moved, I realized that their closet was big enough for Willow's small mattress.  That has become her "bedroom" more often than not since then!  Not perfect, but it's a good consequence, and helps Journey to be able to tune her out and go to sleep.

So anyways, back to Journey and Willow developing a friendship....  Their favorite play right now is Mama and Baby.  Journey is the Mama and Willow is the Baby.  In the "baby" mode, Willow likes Journey to baby her and tell her what to do (perfect!).  They also have fun dressing up and pushing their babies or animals around in their strollers.

All dressed up for the wedding  :)

One day, Journey and Willow came upstairs completely dressed up, including extra bows, scarves, multiple dresses and tutus.  Journey informed me that she was getting married and Willow was in her wedding.  When I asked her who she was marrying, she said "Aspen!"  He (quite indignantly) said, "no you aren't!", where in she clarified that she was pretend marrying him.  Oh man, that kind of stuff just kills me, love it!  :)

I really feel glad that I didn't put Journey in preschool.  I think that just the sheer amount of time they have together everyday has lead them to developing a friendship, not to mention the "guidance" (and lots of it!) from Mommy in learning to treat and talk to each other nicely.

Aspen

So it's been a long time since I've done an update on each of the kids.  I have so much in my head, and am constantly telling myself not to forget this or that detail about one of the kids....Uggh.  Trying to remember the things I told myself not to forget is impossible!

Aspen is 8, and just finishing up 2nd grade at Portland Christian.  I think I forgot to do an update about how we ended up moving him from Scouters Mountain Elementary 2 weeks after school started last September.  Basically, his class had 33 students in it, and after looking at the school calendar for the year, it averaged out to 4 day school weeks.  Knowing we were looking at moving, and with the large class size and budget cut days, we decided to change schools.  He has done incredibly well.  He is at the top of his class, and really loves his school.  He has made huge strides this year specifically in handwriting and reading.  His teacher does not let him get away with sloppy work!  He's always been a good reader, but hasn't loved it.  In the last month, it's like he's just caught on to how much fun reading can be.  His favorite books right now are the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and comical books like that.

There are so many great qualities I see in Aspen right now.
Protective - he's very protective of his younger sisters and brother.  It freaks him out if he sees Willow doing something he feels could be dangerous.  He also watches over Teague when he is home to make sure Willow or Journey aren't being too rough with him.

He is incredibly loving toward me.  He tells me every day, multiple times a day how much he loves me, that I'm the best mom/girl in the whole world, and that he will never stop loving me.  Sometimes I feel like I need to pinch myself or soak in the moment, or something to freeze and remember how he is right now.  Sadly, I know it won't last!  At least, not the way it is now.  I don't remember being that openly loving as a child.  I feel so lucky and often surprised at how uninhibited his is in his love.

He has a great attitude.  There has only been once. ONCE.  The entire year that I've picked him up from school, asked him how his day was, and he said he had a bad day.  And that one day he got into the car pissed!  The girls (usually Willow) now often ask him how his day was when he gets in the car.  It makes me smile every time to hear them ask him how his day was because by their tone of voice you can tell they really do care about how it went.  It usually prompts him to in turn ask us how our day was.  I love those small details.  It always makes my afternoon!

Each month, the school focuses on a different character trait, and honors one student from each class at the end of the month at a chapel.  This month (June) Aspen was chosen for Patience.  I'm not going to lie, Mark and I were extremely proud of him at the chapel.  Like beaming, and trying not to cry proud, haha

His teacher had 5 boys from his class come up and help give the award.  They each read one of the following about him:
A - always has a great attitude
S - smiles show his kindness
P- polite and respectful
E - enjoyable to be around
N- never complains

Honestly, parenting is hard work.  You put so much time, energy, effort and passion into doing your best.  Him being recognized like this is kind of like being given an award as a parent.  Like all the work and effort you have put into training him have made a recognizable difference.  Also when I thought about it, this really is a very fitting character trait award.  He has three younger siblings, not to mention all the younger cousins that have helped develop patience in him.  He is really incredible with Peyton, in particular.  Aspen is over 3 years older than Peyton and about double his size, but they just love each other.  Aspen is so patient and helpful with him.  I love seeing them together.

One other thing that I have to say about Aspen is that he is super helpful around the house and just loves his little brother.  He gives Teague lots of attention, and tells him all the time how much he loves him that he's the best little brother ever :)

March 2012

Oh gosh.  I'm sitting here at my computer, and it's now June.  I can't think of anything from March.  What the heck did we do in March?

Unpack.
Oh yeeah, unpacked, set up the house, and set about exploring our new neighborhood every nice day we had.  I've been blown away at how friendly the neighbors are.  We've had many neighbors come over and introduce themselves to us, and people walking by the house are always introducing themselves to us if they live in the neighborhood.  I love that!    We lived at our last house for over 9 years, and literally only knew the names of our next door neighbors.  Nobody was friendly (including us).  Such a different culture here in the city, and we are loving it.

Teague's Allergies
This was again a huge part of my life.  Cutting out all dairy, eggs, wheat, soy, nuts, coconut, beans, corn and bananas, and then trying to figure out what to feed myself and feed the family was extremely difficult and stressful.  Most of my free time in the evening and nap time was spent trying to get educated on all things eczema and allergy.

Spring Break at the Beach
We took off for the beach for 4 days for Spring Break.  We hadn't been there since December, and had missed it!  It was a great time to get away and relax, and we wished we could stay longer.


Dropping Weight
The only, and I mean ONLY good that has come of this crazy-stressful diet I've been on is that I've finally been dropping my pregnancy weight.  I dropped the first chunk of weight after delivery and in the first two weeks.  Since then, it's been excruciatingly slow to come off.  In the first 2 weeks after going on this diet for Teague, I dropped 5 pounds, and was down 8 by day 16.

One Diet Cheat Night
I broke down and checked Facebook for any other highlights I couldn't think of, and found one more....
The one night I broke down and cheated on my diet.  Three weeks in, and I just couldn't take it anymore.  I was missing real food, and cooking with Mark SO much.  One of the things we love to do together, maybe 2-3 times a month, is have a date night in.  We feed the kids their dinner and put them to bed, then pour ourselves some glasses of wine and make dinner together in an unhurried and uninterrupted way.  It's so nice to slow down, have a drink together, enjoy the view, and talk while we cook together.  Yes, we don't end up eating until maybe 8 or 8:30pm, but it's SO worth it.  And it was especially so that night in March.  I really needed a night free of stress with my hubby, and it felt amazing after the stress of the move and diet!


So there it is.  All the highlights of March 2012.

Oh wait, just thought of one more.  Teague's NOT sleeping through the night anymore.  :(   I'm not sure if it's the move, the drastic change in my diet making my milk not as rich, stress, teething or a combo, but he's now up 3-6 times a night.  He's still an amazing baby.  Super sweet and laid back so I have nothing to complain about.  Sometimes I think him sleeping through the night when he did was just God giving me what I needed when I needed it - God's grace to get me through the move.  Regardless, I'm incredibly thankful for the time I had to get good sleep!

May 2012

Highlights:
Teague much less reactive and sensitive to everything.  Teague's face has cleared up almost completely, and I have been able to cautiously add back a lot of foods.  So amazing!

Mother's Day

Ava's 5th Birthday Party at Mt. Scott Community Center

Start of fishing season with halibut.

Memorial Day at the Beach

April 2012

 Beautiful Spring sunset.  We love living here.

Aspen's 8th Birthday

 For Aspen's 8th birthday, we had his friends meet up here at our house.  Mark took them to a place to play some games of laser tag (which they loved, but it was funny because they would have been just as happy to stay at our house and play outside), then they came back here for pizza and cup cakes.


We LOVE our Teagy-beegy  :)

 I love this picture!  The girls were super excited about getting new swim suits  :)

It couldn't be avoided....big sisters are the best  :)