Fake Piano

Today was a LONG day. I'm not going to lie. I live  very blessed life, but there are times I just feel worn out. Today was one of them. I'm pretty sure it mostly has to do with the lack of sleep due to the power outage last night, but not much seemed to go right until Ty came home. I burnt everything I made and made such a mess out of the laundry that I may need to rewash everything! Fortunately for me, my kids are ever so forgiving. 

Eating Joe's O's at the table like a big boy!

Eating my food at the table like a thief...

Ty came home after work and I was magically able to see straight again. We decided to ask my mother if we could go on a date, because we needed some time alone. She said alright as long as we get the kids by bedtime. We are so blessed to have than woman!

At Gramma's. I normally dislike pictures of kids watching TV (since I am not a fan of TV) , but this made me laugh. Ty plopped Locke down for a moment on the little couch and it just looked funny to me! It looks like he's actually watching TV.

Showing us that she can play "real songs" on a "fake piano".

I LOVE dating my husband. He is totally the perfect man for me. We always have a blast together whatever the situation. I hope other women are as lucky and me. Ty and I enjoyed our time alone, but we were ready to pick up the kiddos by the end. They were all happy to see us too. :)

HQ asking which button to push.

Well, I am exhausted. I hope to spend a good amount of time sewing tomorrow. Good night!

Floor Gum

I took Izzy to check out a new place for gymnastics today. She hasn't taken gymnastics since we moved and we've just finally gotten around to checking some places out. Most of these places offer a trial class and I always take them up on them before "buying" no matter who recommended that place to me. If it doesn't feel right to Izzy then it just won't work. 

Today's gym was about a quarter the size of her last gym. It was clean enough and the people were friendly. I like that the class sizes were fairly small which meant she was given more attention. She also learned her coaches name after the first visit! It took her nearly two months last time. And she can now do a cartwheel.  

First time on a balance beam over 6 inches off the floor.

 I stayed to watch. Izzy likes spectators. Heck, she wear the brightest leotard out there it's hard not to watch her. There was plenty of space on the sidelines for HQ to roam free, but it wasn't enough. She wanted to roll, jump, skip, and play with the other kids. So to amuse herself she would say, "Bye!" to me and run to the other side of the building in the hopes that I would panic and chase her. With Locke on my lap and the knowledge that there was no where she could really go, that just wasn't going to happen. Especially over cement. Fortunately another little girl showed up and she and HQ played for the remainder of the class.

Sprawled over my legs. Watching Izzy. 

Playing on the bleachers under me and trying to pick gum off the floor...

All in all it was a good class. Izzy had fun and she seemed to learn plenty. We may have found our new gym.

About an hour before bedtime tonight our power went out. HQ screamed! For the next hour she repeated "want on! want on!" I broke out a couple glow sticks for the girls which ended up being turned into weapons... my little princesses. Locke didn't seem to mind much. They are all asleep now so they must not be too traumatized. Apparently a woman was stuck in one of our complexes elevators. Ty had gone out to help our apartment manager with emergency prep stuff and overheard that the woman said she wasn't worried since she had been trapped in an elevator before... what... luck?

I'm so Emo.

The end of November is an emotional time for me. And the emotion I generally lean towards is depressed. This is why I chose not to blog that past few nights. I didn't want to have depression typing diarrhea all over this page. I'm not going to get into depth of why, but we shall keep it simple and say that many of my loved ones died in the month of November. And I lost two on separate "Black Fridays". So I dislike that day in particular. Perhaps it's an immature emotional speed bump that I will need to get over, but it hasn't gotten better yet. A little icing on my depression cake was the fact that this was the first Thanksgiving I didn't have Izzy.

Ty could not get off this Black Friday to help distract me so he wanted me to do my best to distract myself (and not wallow in my emo self pity) by hitting up a sale that peeked my interest. My mom agreed to let the kids sleep at her house so I could get an early start. The night before, I went through their flyer with a notebook, highlighter, and pen in hand. I checked out patterns online (At $.99 each it was worth a look) so that if there were any I wanted I already had the number written down and wouldn't have to fight to look through the pattern books at the store. I found 2. I made sure I grabbed a number from the cutting counter right when I walked in. I know waiting to get your fabric cut can take up to two hours during a sale like that. Fortunately since I was one of the first people there it was only 45 minutes, but I was walking around looking for goodies so I didn't even realize it. There was no rudeness, pushiness, or anything I have ever heard about Black Friday. I did see a mother and daughter walking around the store in the "eye black" that football players wear. It made me giggle. The sale did it's job. I was distracted and was able to get everything I needed for Christmas gifts/wrapping.

My preparation paid off! See how much spent vs how much saved?!

 Ty and I also went out on our first late night date the other night. Since the kids spent the night at my parents' we decided to go to midnight Rock n' Bowl at our local bowling alley. We were pretty surprised at how unpacked it was. When Ty and I dated we had to wait in a long line about half an hour before it started. We got there a little after midnight and there were about 15 empty lanes! Has bowling gotten even less cool in the last 3 years? It also seemed like the music got louder... or is that just a sign of us getting older? Oh well, we had fun! Ty's actually pretty good. We always make "friends" with the people next to us because they are impressed by his skills. He also looks cooler because he owns his own bowling ball and shoes. He tries to give me pointers, but I must be a terrible student. I think my high was 78.. yeah. But it felt great to get out for such an extended date with my favorite person :)

Here are some pictures of the smaller ones from today!

He wants to get Rudolph.

She was so tired, but wanted to play... 

Thanksgiving Eve

HQ didn't have her nap yesterday so she woke up about two and a half hours earlier than she usually does. In true HQ fashion she made sure to make enough noise to wake her brother up too. 

A 5am concert with Elmo.

The first half of the morning we got our home studies done, cleaned, and waited for a package to be delivered. We finally ordered Izzy's prize for completing her level 4 phonics. She actually completed it about 3 weeks ago, but the item she wanted (a crochet bob-omb) had jumped from $30 to $80!! So we waited until we found something comparable. A few days ago we found a plush bob-omb for $18. Woo!

Her chosen prize.

Locke spent the morning rearranging our lower shelves. He would actually take all the books off and then put one back on the shelf sideways and try to shove it out the other end of the shelf. What goes on in that little head?

So helpful.

This afternoon we headed to my mom's to bake the pies for tomorrow. Izzy wanted to make the pumpkin ones all by herself. After pouring the pumpkin into the pie crust we noticed the bowl of sugar/cinnamon/cloves/ginger still sitting out. We almost had sugar (and taste) free pies!

We forgot to put in the sugar?!

 Our mailbox is a little walk away so I usually wait until all the kids are in bed and Ty's here for me to go check it. It's a nice peaceful walk at night. The buttons I ordered for the guys' shirts arrived (made from coconuts!) and also a package from my awesome seamstress friend. She had sent me a "just because" gift. I seriously choked up! It had an adorable little card, a bunch of little anime stickers for the girls (although Ty insists she meant to send them to him), and a fabulous necklace I totally would have purchased myself. What an awesome way to brighten someone's day! I am so blessed to have her in my life. :) 

Yay! Totally LOVE my necklace. And yes, Jess, just because gifts are always nice :) 

Heaven is sooo Lucky!

Ty and I learned that the world lost an amazing man last night. I have heard the quote, "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." -Mohanda Gandhi. And sadly I think this quote can be very relevant, but to it I also say, "Apparently you haven't had the joy of meeting Ash". He wasn't judgmental, bitter, or unforgiving. He was loving, extremely giving, very honest, and with everything that was going on in his life he was joyful! He reached out to the "outcasts" and made them feel welcome. I'd say that sounds a bit like Christ.

To be perfectly honest I cried myself to sleep last night with my heart aching for his wife and their two little girls (who are also friends with my children). I can't even begin to pretend I know what they are going through. Not all that long ago our families had dinner together. During which Ty and Ash were reminiscing about when they were stewards at our church together about a decade ago. They laughed about the silly things and immature things they would do (he had since become a pastoral assistant and operations manager at the church). After a minute of silence Ash finally said, "Yeah, we were the type of stewards I would fire today". We all laughed. :)

We wish we could have known him longer. He has really touched so many lives. The last time we saw him he was telling us how excited and proud of us he was for adding "another soldier in His army". It was very refreshing from the normal, "well, are you done now?" that we usually got. We miss you already Ash.

To quote my husband, "Heaven is sooo lucky!"

Sleeping Through the Night

"Hewo?"

It was a beautiful rainy day!

  Locke officially sleeps through the night! Yay! I waited until he did it for at least a week to say anything. I learned my lesson after having Izzy. At 10 weeks she slept through the night 2 days in a row and I bragged to everyone how awesome of a mother I must be because my baby already slept through the night (well, not exactly like that, but I'm sure that's how it sounds to another new mother who isn't getting a full night's rest!). After that she didn't sleep more than 5 hours consecutively until she was nearly one... I assume it's mostly a "kids are individuals" thing and will sleep through the night we they are ready. Izzy it was near one, HQ around 6 months, and Locke at 8 months. Whatever the case, I was ready.

When Ty isn't home our morning routine is the following. Locke wakes me up sometime between 5:30 and 6am. He is changed, fed, and then hangs out in bed with me until the girls get up usually about an hour later. The girls then hang out in my bed (HQ will normally make sure the bed is bouncy), cuddle, and talk about their last nights dreams and hopes for the day. We then go downstairs and make breakfast. However this morning Izzy and HQ bypassed the hanging out with me part and went downstairs to make me breakfast in bed. I was served a bowl of cheerios in Izzy's favorite heart shaped bowl. Granted the bowl was 90% milk and 10% Cheerios, but she was so proud of herself! She even had HQ bring me an apple. HQ did take a bite out of it, but she came into my room with a huge grin on her face and yelled, "Tada! Mommy's apple!" What little sweethearts.

Locke and I watched the Vikings vs. Raider's game. Another disappointment (is it still a disappointment when you pretty much know how it will go?), but it did get interesting for the last half. Ty brought me home a "I'm sorry The Vikings sucked today" burrito from one of my favorite little Mexican food places. It made things a little better.

Ty and I finally found our anniversary gift certificate to Iccho and decided to use it for our date tonight. I love dating my husband! He is still my best friend and I get the added bonus of being married to him. It's still like I am living with a playmate. Is that weird? I don't know. All I know is I'm so grateful for him and we have a lot of fun together. But, he get's up at 3am and works for 12 hours, so we call it early, but we'll take what we can get!

Date Night! Yum :D

Party, Party

Last game for The Pink Unicorns and they tied! Well, they don't really keep score, but the parents are counting anyway. I think if a team received an award for "most improved" it would have been The Pink Unicorns. They were finally getting the hang of it. It was also nice that my oldest brother showed up to watch her game today. 

HQ and Locke eating snacks on the sideline. 

After their game the team met up at BoB's Big Boy for brunch and trophies. Izzy was so happy to get her first trophy. She believes it's made out of real gold. 

Poor Locke...

 The girls had a blast being able to hang out and see each other outside of practice/games. They harassed the poor plastic giant Santa and even proposed to him.

Speaking of which... my mom told Izzy today that Santa isn't real. I had always been on the fence about whether or not we'd "have Santa" at our house, but actually having my mom flat out tell her that REALLY bummed me out. Izzy believed there was a Santa last year, but it was never our "focus". We never did the pictures with Santa or mail him lists.  I guess I didn't realize how much I really was holding onto that tradition.

"MY TROPHY!!!"

So happy :D

Protecting her little sister from The Goblin King.

 Tonight we went to the birthday party of a fun little 5 year old! There was music, games, dancing, and of course cake. I cannot stand the song Cupid Shuffle, but I got to say that when I saw HQ clapping and dancing her little butt off to that song it made my heart melt! Is that wrong?

Celebrating her cousin's 5th birthday!

Her first Capri Sun ever... there was no water available so HQ enjoyed 3 Capri Sun's...
it was the best party she had ever been to.

Locke and my Dad.

Everyone had a great time. Plus Izzy scored an awesome pair of heart shaped Hello Kitty sunglasses in her goodie bag. I'd say the party was a success!

Crazy party guys.
(Both of them are asleep)