Good Times

Ahhh summer, how we love you!

No school

Sunshine

Summer Bucket Lists
Loads of Fun

    School started the second week of August.  Riley is in 4th grade, Emily 2nd, and Aaron 1st.  They all love their teachers and are doing great in school.  Except Riley.  He was failing 4th grade after the first week of school-THAT takes talent. He ended the term on Silver Honor roll somehow and we are working hard to encourage him and help him have pride in everything he does.  It's a long process.  Riley also played baseball again in the fall and he pretty much gave up on that too and stopped caring about it. It's been a brutal 3 months for Riley and effort but we're working on it.  In really good news, the 9 year old attitude has faded quite a bit with the turning of 10 years old and THAT my friends is fabulous.  This whole parenting thing is quite the adventure.
    Aaron also played baseball again this fall but moved up to the older league with a pitching machine.  He grew so much as a baseball player this season and did really well.  He LOVES baseball more than everything else and that's fun to watch.  Aaron has a wonderful 1st grade teacher who is very open to challenging him where he needs it and also enjoys him a lot. He is doing wonderfully in school.
    After a solid year of attending baseball games, I promised Emily this year that she could cheer.  It was an absolute madhouse trying to get the boys to two separate places and then adding in Emily also but with the help of Mark and Debbi we got through it.  Some nights I didn't know how it was going to happen-one kid baseball at 5, one kid baseball at 7, one kid cheer across town at 6, it was crazy but we did it.  Emily joined the UNR cheer team, which is a program where the UNR cheerleaders and kids in the group, learn a routine together and then get to perform together at UNR events.  The first event she did was the UNR football home opener game.  The band was on the field, students running across, cannons going off and planes flying overhead.  It was a lot but she did it and loved it.  She also did Thriller at a UNR volleyball game and enjoyed that too.  It's been a great way to introduce her to cheer without the big pop Warner commitments.

We went on a quick vacation again this year.  All the kids wanted to do was go to the ocean, go to the ocean and go to the ocean.  Ha!  So we went to the ocean.  We went to a new place called Seacrest and fell head over heals in love.  May be the place we go year after year we loved it that much.  We were there on Riley's birthday and spent the afternoon at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.  The kids rode their very first rollercoaster (a baby one).  The boys loved it, but Emily was recovering from a bug she came down with on the way to the ocean and so every joggle hurt her head.  She and Dave went on a calm ride to shoot ghosts and the boys and I went on the log ride which they thought was the best things ever.



Emily and Riley had a double birthday party at the park across the street.  It was supposed to be a pool party but 3 hours before the party, they closed the pool.  Whomp whomp. It was still fun though and I was happy for the chance to put two parties into one time!

 

The balloon races came to Reno again this year and we went really early to see Dawn Patrol.  Then we cuddled up in our sleeping bags to watch the mass ascension.

Last but not least, Emily has finally been cleared to play on the monkey bars!  Her shoulder is doing so well!  It was quite a process of healing and she was such a trooper.

A New Year and Happenings

     As summer break winds down, I've realized that I never brought you guys up to date on the Winter and Spring, so here we go!

    The new year brought a new sport in to our lives-skiing.  I grew up cross country skiing, but downhill I had only done twice before I got pregnant and I was a little intimidated.  Add to that, the amount of work it takes to prep, pack up, load the car, dress sleepy children in layers of snow clothes, drive up the mountain and then get them booted, helmeted, gloved and skied up?  It was a lot.  Good news was, everyone loved it.  We did the program at Sky Tavern which is solely for teaching kids how to ski and because parents have to volunteer as part of the deal, it's way less money than lessons and passes to other resorts and a great environment for learning.  I volunteered to work the line getting on to a lift and Dave of course taught lessons.  He has skied his whole life and actually did this same program when he was a kid.  Riley has found the sport he truly loves and is good at and it is skiing.  He ended the season at level 4 and ready to take on the world.  Aaron liked it too, and moved up to the top of level 3, and Emily, when she wasn't resting flat on her back in the snow, made it to a 3 also.  I am proud to say, I also made it to a level 4!  I noticed my tail bone hurt whenever I sat a certain way and couldn't figure out why.  Two weeks after skiing ended and it felt better I realized it was from all of the falling on my a*%.  True story.

 

        Riley decided to play baseball again in the spring which is an entirely different sport than in the fall.  Aaron, after seeing Riley play in the fall, said he wanted to switch from soccer to baseball and play also.  Riley stayed in the farm division which has an automatic pitching machine and is typically  for kids ages 6-9.  Aaron played T-ball, and Dave coached his team which both of them loved.  Spring ball has a draft, they keep score, there's a tournament at the end, and it's all anyone talks about or cares about.  Some a little too much...    Baseball is INTENSE.  3-4 nights a week, all games, plus a practice thrown in if the coach can fit it and add in two boys playing on different teams?  The real kicker was that Skiing got delayed almost a month due to the crazy winter and record snowfall we got this year so for 2 or 3 weeks we had 3 nights of baseball during the week, 2 games on Saturdays and skiing every Sunday.  It was A LOT.  Skiing ended which guaranteed one day off from baseball and then the boys' schedules stopped overlapping whatsoever so that there were 2 weeks in April where we were at the field 11 out of 14 days.  BUT the boys LOVED it.  Emily was a real trooper.  With that kind of schedule, there was no way she could do a sport or even dance for the whole school year and she was dragged to every single baseball thing ever.  Grandparents took turns taking her out to lunch or somewhere so she could get away a few times but she did so well.  Riley's team lost every single game they played all season except for 2.  They were in 5th place out of 6 teams.  It was sad.  Tournament started and they lost their first game.  They won every single game after that to win the entire tournament!  It was incredible.  Something he will never forget.  By the last game, he was playing half the game as pitcher and half at first, a far cry from being in the dugout for two innings and the outfield the rest-how he started the season.  He saved one of the final tournament games with a hit that got him on base in the 7th inning with 2 outs bringing a runner in to tie the game.  Dave learned that he never wants to sit next to his wife at a baseball game ever.  She's loud and yells the whole game, constantly cheering the team on at the edge of her seat and asking a lot of questions.  *womp womp



       Baseball ended on such a high note that when we came down from the clouds and back to reality, we couldn't believe there was only a week left of school.  We celebrated our very last Kindergarten graduation. *sniff sniff  Our baby turned 6.  * double sniff sniff
     

       Aaron celebrated his birthday at home with a couple friends.  He wanted a party that had a house theme and a cake shaped and decorated like our house.  We decorated graham cracker houses, played minute to win it games, and ate some pizza and ice cream.  Dave took a turn at the cake decorating and it really did look like our house!  He's pretty amazing.  Aaron was a happy boy.  I was a teary momma.

Easter came with lots of family, food, egg hunts and fun!

 

       Dave and I celebrated our 10th anniversary in March.  10th!  We took our first trip and it was together and kidless thanks to Dave's parents who took the kids for us.  We left on a Thursday at lunch and didn't come back until Monday.  We flew to Denver and toured the Coors Light facility, visited a few shops we wanted to see, spent 1 night in an old Bed and Breakfast and then finished our trip staying downtown and seeing an Avalanche hockey game. It was fantastic!  What a 10 years it has been.  

     

      That pretty much brings us to summer break which I'll save for another post.  Since yesterday was such a big day for us, I'll go ahead and add on what happened to Emily.
   
       Friday morning the kids wanted to play in the sprinklers in the back yard.  We have a sprinkler that is a big ball and shoots the water out of the sides.  It's about 2 feet high and the kids were taking turns jumping over it.  After a dozen passes, it was Emily's turn.  She jumped over and her foot caught, just barely, on the top as she went over, causing her to head straight for the ground and land on her shoulder.  I heard the thump and knew it was bad.  We thought she dislocated her shoulder as she couldn't lift her arm up so we took her to an orthopedic urgent care to have x-rays done and see a doctor.  First picture, it was clear she had broken her collar bone very badly.  They don't fix that kind of break, just let the body build up bone around it.  In 3 months she will be as strong and ever.  She can't do the monkey bars (her favorite thing to do) for 6 weeks and has restrictions on PE.  First week, little brother (whose classroom is right next door to Emily's) and I will help her get her backpack in and big brother will come by her room at the end of the day and help her pack it up and carry it out.  There are serious advantages to being born between boys.  She is doing very well today and working on doing things with one arm-the other is in a sling. She can use her hand and lift the bottom of her arm but any joggling of her body causes her a lot of pain.

 I will keep you updated through Facebook and Instagram on how she's doing and thank you to everyone for all of your well wishes!
 

Happy New Year!

The boys spilled water on my computer 

 Destroyed it in one giggle and kick  

Then Fall happened   

Then the holidays   

 Now snow, rain, floods and 4 weeks home  

At least I didn't sell Riley on the corner to the highest bidder

The thought crossed my mind

More than once

Have you heard of the 9 year old attitude thing?

The he's-perfect-away-from-home-like-a-teenage-girl-when-he-comes-back thing?

Me neither

I googled it

It's a thing

Someone should've warned me

Ok, 6 months is a long time to catch you up on.  I made some videos and will keep things short.  

Did you just laugh out loud?

What are you sayin?

Oh ya. It's totally true. 

 Come hang out with me anyways.

*love

Summer was probably the funnest one we've ever had. 

We also went to Hope Valley to camp and fish
Didn't catch a thing but the kids loved every second of it.
 When they weren't puking

At least they felt great after?

We'll go with that

Dave also had his 20 year High School Reunion

Aces game and a night out with a few of his old friends

It's was really fun

THEN SCHOOL STARTED

For the record

I don't have 6 hours to myself

EVER

How the heck does that happen anyways?

Has something to do with being a grownup I suppose

Aaron started Kindergarten and LOVES school and his teacher

Emily started first grade and she loves her teacher also

Riley...not so much.  

Turns out being given the option to complete things or not complete things

(Because you should be responsible for your grade)

Thinking it's the best thing ever and choosing to do only half his work just because he can

Then failing because he only did half the work and being in trouble for said grade

Not so awesome

Riley needs to be told to reach for the stars and not be aloud to give up

Leaving him to his own means

He'll do as little as possible

Most of the time

It's been fun

He's actually doing much much better in school now

Thank the Lord

For realz  

Many prayers for wisdom have been sent!

SPORTS
Riley decided to try baseball
He loved it
So did Dave
*grin
Baseball is a minimum of 3 days a week
Sometimes it was 4
Aaron wanted to play soccer again
It's 2 times a week
Someone please tell me how to get home from school, have exactly 45 minutes to complete homework, change in to sports gear, pack up snacks and amusement for the other two, and prep for dinner?
Because I failed

Emily has decided to pause dancing and tried tennis.  At the same location as Aaron's soccer practices, there were a group of young girls practicing cheerleading.  She sat on the grass and watched them every.single.week

She really wants to cheerlead

Don't know how I feel about that

We took a break from school and sports over the first week of October

School here is out all week for "Fall Break"

And went on our first vacation

We went to Monterey, to the aquarium, and stayed right on the ocean

Aaron still looks at me sometimes and says,

"I wish we were at the ocean"

We had a couple birthdays to celebrate also

Emily turned 7

Riley 9

Emily invited her friends to our home and had a Cupcake Party

We bashed in a cupcake piñata

Pinned candles on the cupcakes

Played Freeze the Cupcake

And baked cupcakes

All the girls then sat and decorated their cupcakes

Eating them promptly after

Riley wanted his party at the batting cages

He and his friends hit balls and ate french fries and cake

It was perfect

Lastly, we celebrated a lot of holidays

And had tons of fun doing it!

I did all of the flipagrams right before Dave's birthday so it's not included

We can't have that!

Happy Birthday to the most amazing husband ever

We managed to find some time to celebrate

Even though a flood was coming in just 1 day

Threatening to take everything from the shop

And destroy our entire world

Ok, maybe not our entire world

But it would've taken months

And a small fortune

To get back up and running

So ya, basically

We stayed dry though

And some good came out of it 

Wouldn't have made it happen without both sides of parents

We're pretty lucky

And they're pretty awesome

Happy New Year!

*As always, you can find me on Instagram posting pictures of the kids and our crazy life