Nuts

October?!?!?  I haven't blogged anything since the end of August.  It's that time of year when I don't have a second to stop.  School has started, Basketball has started, Scouts is back in full swing, Open House for the 4 schools our 5 kids attend, HOMEWORK.  It's been nuts!!

So....I'll try to catch you up on what's been happening.  Nothing amazing or life changing, but I guess that's ok in a way.

School has started.  Zak is a Junior, Ryson in 8th, Bella in 7th, Riley in 6th and Blake in 3rd.  That's quite the spread.  I can't believe how fast life changes once school is back in session.  I didn't realize I had so much free time during the summers.  

Bella turned 13!  All she wanted for her birthday was a shopping spree (that's easy I suppose).  We haven't gone yet, that's what the plan is for this weekend so I'll have to post her purchases later. 

She LOVES One Direction so she did get a personally signed poster from them which she thought was one of the most amazing things ever! 

She also got to go to the Jason Mraz concert with the other side of her family which she thought was AMAZING!  Seems like we were just buying her dolls for her birthdays....where does the time go?

Ryson and Josh (or should I say Josh and Ryson?  I think this takes more of my husbands time than it does Rysons) have started Basketball.  Practice two nights a week, extra practice 2 nights a week (sometimes) and Tournaments on the weekends.  They've had a great season so far.  They've played in 2 Tournaments and have been playing harder than they ever have.  It's been fun watching how different they play just because they are all getting older and more competitive.

Scouts is back every Wednesday.  Ryson is behind because he spends his summers in Utah instead of on the camp outs and hikes with his Troop, but we are trying to get him caught up.  The best part is that he really wants to be an Eagle Scout so we shouldn't have to push him to hard.

Every one I know is having babies so I've been spending a lot of time playing surrogate mom (which is one my favorite things to do).  I love them all and even if they do cry 90% of the time their parents are gone, I'd still watch them any time!!

 

So between all of this, dinner, laundry, yard work, etc. etc. etc. I'm glad I found some time to fill you in on what's been happening at our house.

Cannon Beach 2012

It is a tradition in Josh's family to spend part of the summer in a town called Cannon Beach.  This town is on the coast of Oregon and is beautiful.  The family hasn't been going as often and the last time we went was 4 years ago so it was really fun to get to spend some time there this summer.  We looked forward to the trip all year and it seemed like it was over before we knew it.  The weather was good (meaning no rain).  The kids had a BLAST in the pool and the ocean.  They wore every outfit I had packed within the first two days we were there.  Back and forth from the ocean, to the pool and in new clothes every time!

Josh Teaching Blake how to Fly a Trick Kite (they did this for hours)

The Boys Riding Beach Bikes

Hiking at Ecola State Park.  All kinds of Starfish, crabs and other great things to look at!

Haystack Rock



Summer Camps

This summer was much busier than usual for us.  Ryson usually spends 9 weeks in UT, we rarely see the kids, and Josh and I have a lot of time on our hands.  This summer was different.  Ryson was only gone for 4 weeks (1 week of which we were in ID and still got to see him).  Blake came and spent a week with us and Bella and Riley came on a different week and spent the week with us.  It seems like we had a house full for the majority of the summer (which was nice for a change).

While Blake was with us, he went to a Basketball Summer Camp put on by the Tahoma High School.  He LOVED it!  He would get up every morning and shower and get dressed and go eat breakfast and then wait patiently until it was time to go.

While Bella and Riley were with us, they also participated in camps put on at the High School  Bella did cheer and Riley did Tennis.  They were equally as excited as Blake and it took very little to get them motivated to get going.

Bella had a performance at the end of her camp so we got to go watch her dance and do her cheer.  She practiced ALL day in front of the mirror and was pretty nervous but she was the cutest one out there!

Riley's favorite part of camp was the water balloon fight on the last day.  He started purposely messing up so that he'd get drenched with a water balloon.  He came home with all kinds of prizes from earning so many tickets during the camp.  I guess he takes after his Dad and is just a natural when it comes to Tennis.

I'm guessing the kids will be asking to do this again next year.  It's always fun to have something to look forward to!

Moses Lake

This summer is completely crazy.  It will be over before we know it.  We planned a VERY spontaneous trip to Moses Lake over the weekend.  The weather was amazing there and we had some friends that we met up with.  For being thrown together in just a few short hours, it turned out to be a pretty good time!

Blake has decided he "doesn't know how to swim" so he rarely leaves the stairs or the edge of the pool.  Better safe than sorry I supposed.  Bella and Riley decided that diving for pennies was a fun way to pass some time since we didn't have any pool toys. 

Josh catching some rays.  He's the only one that went home with raccoon eyes.  Zak playing Super Man off of the deck of our friends lake house.  It's probably about an 8 ft drop to the water.

Hoopfest 2012

You can't live in Washington and be a basketball player and NOT go to Hoopfest at least once!  We decided to give it a whirl this year and had so much fun that I'm sure it will be a yearly tradition for us until Ryson graduates High School (and maybe even after that).

Rysons team was called "4 lil white guyz" and they all shaved their number into their hair before leaving to Spokane.  Rysons favorite number is 7 so I got the clippers out and went to town on the back of his head.

We are lucky enough to have family connections in Moses Lake which is about 1/2 way between Maple Valley and Spokane.  We left Friday night and drove to Moses.  Swam in the pool, ate the famous Chico's pizza and enjoyed the sun for pretty much the first time ALL year!

We got up early on Saturday morning and arrived in Spokane around 10:30am for our 11am game.  We found parking at $15 a day (YIKES) and made our way down the streets trying to find our court.  Next year we might opt for matching fluorescent shirts just so we can keep better tabs on where everyone is.

We found our court and lost our first two games.  The team Ryson was on only practiced together twice and he only knew two of the other boys but I'm pretty sure he had a good time anyway.  They ended up winning one game and losing 3 but he's already making plans for next year. 

So Long 6th Grade

Bella graduated from 6th Grade this year.  Which means she moves to the Jr High next year.  Not sure how excited we are about that...
We will have one kid in High School, two in Jr High and 2 in Elementary.  They are growing up fast.  For Bella's 6th Grade Celebration, they had a dance at her school.  Josh volunteered to chaperon so he spent an evening watching her have a great time with her friends.  She was a bit mortified at the fact that her Dad would be there and that he could quite possibly spoil all her fun, but when I asked her about it she said that he wasn't embarrassing and that he spent most of his time in the other room.  She also told me that it was the 'best four hours of her life."
She also participated in 6th Grade Graduation which Josh and I went and watched her receive her 'diploma'.  They had some refreshments and a slide show and went through all of the 6th Grade classes.  They were all given a t-shirt from Stahl to wear the following Monday on their tour of the Jr High.

Field Day

The end of the school year is jam packed with all kinds of activities.  It's crazy how you can go from 1-2 events a night to absolutely no schedule at all in just a couple weeks time.  One of the activities the kids got to participate in was Field Day.  Josh volunteered his time to help out at some of the various stations and spent the day in Puyallup with the kids.  It was one of the nicest days we've had this summer so he lucked out.  He came home smiling and sun burned.  Can't ask for a better day.

Track Stars

All of the kids (with the exception of Blake) participated to track this year.  Blake would have loved to have joined, but he's still to young.
Zak lettered in long jump and triple jump although I can't tell you what his distances were.  Ryson did well and competed in the 100m dash, the 200m hurdles and the 4x100 relay.  His team was a combination of 7th and 8th graders so that made it hard for any of the 7th graders to place in order to go to Districts.
Bella and Riley both made it to Districts and Regionals and were really nervous to participate.  Josh just kept telling them that as long as they had a smile on their face the whole time, they would be just fine.  So they did just that.  Ran their races with huge grins on their faces.  It was fun to watch!!

Thir-TEEN

For Memorial Day Weekend we had a basketball tournament (what else would we be doing on a three day weekend).  We drove to Vancouver Washington to stay for 3 days and play basketball the majority of each day.

We played at Battleground High School and had a total of 7 games.  We lost every single one of them but it was a fun weekend all the same.  I don't have any pictures of the actual games (If you've ever tried to take pictures of a basketball game with a 35mm digital camera, you know it is all but impossible to get a decent picture).

On the 27th was Rysons 13th birthday.  That's right, he's now in his TEENS (heaven help us).  We all went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner that night and he had a GREAT birthday.  We had a cake and everyone spoiled him with gifts of cash.  I won't even say how much he raked it.  It was unbelievable.

We had over 50 people at the party and it was a great time.  We spent the day shopping all over Portland.  We hit up the Nike outlet first.  I'm pretty sure every kid on the team bought a new pair of shoes.  Then we headed over to the Adidas employee store.  Josh had scored an invite (which is the only way to get into the store if you aren't an employee).  Everything was 50% off so he did a little shopping for himself and Ryson got the basketball shoes he's been waiting for.  He was thrilled.  When we were done shopping we decided to take Ryson to downtown Portland for a little surprise.

You can't really tell what they are standing in front of, but it is Noodles & Company which happens to be Rysons FAVORITE restaurant from Utah.  They don't have them in Washington so he was so excited when he noticed where we were.  Josh and I stumbled across it when we spent our 1 year anniversary in Portland.
When we lived in UT we used to eat here after every one of Rysons baseball games (yes I said baseball).  We would order the same thing every time and Ryson would make sure I left enough on my plate for him to sample a little bit of everything.  He was 7 at the time. Great memories.

Needless to say, we had a PERFECT weekend.  Ryson had an AMAZING birthday and we can't wait to do it again next year.  We have been to this tournament twice now and we are hoping to make it a yearly tradition but Rys is growing up to fast and before you know it, he will (hopefully) be joining the High School basketball team and we will follow him whereever that team takes him.

Happy 13th Kiddo!!

Zoom Zoom

FINALLY!!  After months and months of dealing with a car that I had to jump start EVERY SINGLE DAY before I could drive it, we finally found the car we've been looking for.  Right style, right mileage, right price.  It was worth the wait.  I had to really talk Josh into the Hatchback.  He wasn't a big fan at first but then once we got serious about looking, he decided maybe they looked a little sportier after all.

This has been ONE positive for us in the last few months.  Things have been REALLY rough around our house lately.  We've been through some things/changes that have challenged us physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  Josh and I have had to come to terms with some things we never thought/hoped we'd ever have to worry about.  We are trying to stay calm and not over react and giving the space we feel is needed at the moment.  Life is hard and things get rough.  I haven't blogged in a while because I haven't felt like I've had anything positive to talk about.  The car is a material thing and isn't a 'cure all' but it sure has been something fun for us to focus on for a change.   

Brace Yourself

My husband and I are at that point in life where we get to start panicking about tween/teen expenses and how in the world we are ever going to afford all that our kiddos are going to need (demand) from here on out. 
Zak will be completing his Drivers Ed this week and will eventually deem it necessary to drive.  In order for that to happen, we need to have a car (that we aren't especially fond of~if you catch my drift) and he will need to be covered on our insurance.  The discussion with State Farm is a phone call I have procrastinated as I've heard from far to many people that covering a teenager is beyond expensive and I just don't think I can face that number at this moment.

Meanwhile, Ryson had the fine opportunity of getting braces last week.

Bella decided to go with us to see what was involved because her dentist recently told her that she has an overbite and will also require braces. 

Hopefully she can hold off for 12-18 months so that we don't have the expense of two metal mouths in the family.

 


Ryson did pretty well during the whole procedure considering how long he had to have his mouth stretched to capacity and dry as a bone. 

They kept telling him what a model patient he was.  It took just over an hour to get everything where it needed to be.





Dr. Roloff ~the Orthodontist that will be vacationing on our hard earned money for the next year.

These puppies aren't cheap.  He will need them for 12-18 months and they told him if he takes care of them, he may get them off sooner.  This was probably the worst thing they could have told him.  The kid wants them off so bad, he hardly eats and is constantly worried about how much food he has in his brackets so he brushes, flosses, brushes some more.  We have to keep telling him to RELAX and just do what is normal and he'll be fine.

He didn't have the wires and bands on in this picture but I never did get a picture of the end result.  He opted for alternating hot pink and purple bands to finish off the look.  I failed to mention that he had to have a tooth pulled the day before so that his other tooth would have a spot to fit.  Wasn't the best weekend for a 12 year old kid.
I don't think Bella is as excited about the idea of getting braces after watching Rys go through the process but she has such a bad overbite that I'm pretty sure braces are inevitable.

So as we brace ourselves for the future with our 5, ever evolving kids, we have our fingers crossed that we will be able to provide for them all that they need and want in order to have the best future possible.

Yes, we are alive and no, nothing worth reporting...

Kentwood

Things have changed at our house this week.  Changed for the better if you ask me.  Zak has decided that he wants to attend/graduate from Kentwood High School.  He moved in with us on Friday.  Brought a bunch of clothes and some of his favorite things from his Moms and set up camp.  I think he did about 12 loads of laundry his first night here and got his room all put together.  He had all of his clothes hung up, posters hung, pictures/drawers rearranged, etc. 
He was supposed to start school on Monday.  You can't believe the hoops we've had to jump through in order to get this to happen.  Come Monday, he and Josh arrived at the school just to be told that the counselor was busy that day and wouldn't have time to show him around or give him his schedule and to come back on Tuesday.  What a disappointment.  He was so excited.  Needless to say, Monday was pretty boring.
But Tuesday!!  He was nervous, excited, scared, all at the same time but he made it through his first day back to the Kent School District and was all smiles about it.  He's been doing great so far this week.  Getting his homework done, reasonable hours hanging with friends, getting to bed on time.  All those fun responsible things that were part of the deal.  We've also spent every night this week at Wal-Mart buying school supplies and misc things that he needs around the house but it's been tons of fun having him around.  Here's to two promising years ahead!!  Go Conks!!!

Happy New Year!!

The year 2012 has certainly started off with a bang!  For the 6 years that I've lived in Seattle, we have yet to have "normal" weather.  People tell me every season that "this isn't what it's really like in Seattle".  So far, the winters have been the most unpredictable.  It rarely snows here, but when it does, it shuts the entire place down.  I have driven to work in HORRIBLE snow storms one day and then two days later it looks like Spring.  This year was no exception. 

The first snow storm of the season was a DOOZY!  The first few days were very pretty.  Lots of new snow, pretty, fresh, fun for the kids to play in.  We took the kids to Nana and Papa's (since all of the other fun sledding hills were PACKED with people).  We pulled the sleds behind the gator, built a snowman, built a sled ramp, all kinds of fun stuff.

Then the rain started and the real fun began.  There was ice all over everything.  I don't have any pictures of all of the broken trees but I would say about 70% of the trees in Seattle broke because of the heavy ice.

 Because the ice was so bad and all of the trees were falling, the power conveniently went out.  It went out for a few hours.  Came back on for about 45 minutes and then went out again for 2 days!

We had friends over the first night the power was out and hung out around the fire and had some dinner.  The next day we went to Josh's parents (they had power) did a puzzle and took showers.  While we were trying to decide what we were going to do that night, we got news that the power was back on at our house so things were back to normal.  Or were they?

Just as things started thawing out and people could once again brave the roads and get back into the swing of things, we had a major wind storm.  Although we managed through the snow and the ice, we weren't quite so lucky when it came to the wind...   Yep.  This is our back fence exactly two days after Josh and his Dad built it.  The wind picked it up and destroyed it AND the 3ft brick wall that it was on top of.  They spent an entire day this week rebuilding the brick wall and resetting the posts, now we just have to put the fence back where it goes and hope there isn't anymore wind in the forecast..