Sunday, March 26, 2006

Another busy weekend

Whew! Another busy weekend has almost finished. Friday night found me at scrapbook night, the boys at a movie night with friends ( including Ivan!) and Harmony at a sleep over. Saturday morning brought the first soccer practice and game. Followed by long naps and then later babysitting for friends. Sunday, thankfully, is a day of rest!

Ben was supposed to call this morning before church and he didn't. I hope that he just got busy at work and nothing bad happened! The past few days he has been bored because it was Afghanistan's New Years. He did a lot of running on those days since there was little work. I get to instant message with him every night which has been so nice. It makes it a lot easier to have so much contact with him. He is counting down until he comes home and as of yesterday it was 91. However today marks 3 months since I have seen him. 5 months total that he has been gone and 3 months since he has been over there. It has gone by fast and I was told that the time will move even faster now. I hope so.

Harmony liked soccer. I don't think she really knew how involved soccer was. She was a good sport though and showed a lot of hustle. She enjoyed playing goalie and getting to throw the ball in. She also got to kick a few times. Her coach is a really easy going guy and seemed to just enjoy running around with the kids. She got a new swimming suit this year and is so excited to try it out. So we are headed to the Y after school to go swimming. She had a lot of fun at school on Friday, watching movies and eating snacks. Sometimes I miss those days!

Ethan is just a character. There is just no one cuter! He is constantly telling me funny things. After soccer practice yesterday, he told me that he couldn't wait to go home so that he could be my soccer coach. Right now, he is really into numbers. Although he can't tell time, he can read the numbers from digital clocks. So he will come and tell me what numbers are on it. For instance, he knows that we need to be in the car in the morning at 7:55 and no later, or preschool starts at 857. He asked me the other day to please tell him how many more numbers it is until his birthday. He is very excited for it!

Connor didn't really enjoy his first game of soccer. It was very cold outside and he was feeling scared. I told him to stick with Ethan. However, he was still a bit nervous. By the time he had been in the game a couple of minutes, he came over to me crying. The coach asked him a couple of times if he wanted to play and he said no. However, while Harm was playing, he went into an empty field and practiced kicking into the goal. I am hoping next Sat. he will be willing to play. It breaks my heart every time I see his beautiful blues well up with tears!

Ivan was an absolute pill today at church. We had a good 3 week stretch of no screaming and staying in the chapel. Today he wanted anything that Ethan had. Which of course Ethan was not happy with! After he threw a book at the lady in front of him I took him out. A friend of mine sent her teenage daughter to sit with the other kids and Ivan enjoyed being able to crawl around. I keep thinking only 4 more months until nursery! He is still not walking yet and that is fine with me. He is so busy as it is, I don't know how much more I can handle!

The other day I was changing Ivan's poopy diaper and Ethan was talking to me. I said, "whew this diaper is stinky." So he kept saying, "x stinks mommy" he repeated it a few times. I finally said, "Ethan I have no idea what you are talking about". He replied that his teacher Ms Skees told him that. I told him I didn't think that Ms. Skees would say that someone stinks. In which he replied, " yes she did Mommy. She said it happened to the dinasours!" Extinct. Not exstinks. Got it Ethan. Too cute!

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Out of the Mouth of Babes part 2

Ok, the truth is, the kids tell me funny things all the time, I just forget to write a lot of them down. However, this really made me laugh. If anyone has read or heard of Junie B. Jones, they are Harmony's favorite books. They crack me up, they are funny. So this is where she actually heard the line. I picked Harmony up from school and asked how her day was. She said "Mom I had such a good day." She got an A on her big time line project that she did, her reading class acted out one of the books and since there was a wedding in the book, they got to have "wedding cake", she won a prize from the lunch bunch and she won a trivia contest for SOL. Now I am not exactly sure what the SOL trivia is. But this was her 2nd day in a row of winning. So we got to talking about her class and she says to me, "yeah Mom, I am the brains of that outfit". I said oh really? How do you know your so smart? And she looks at me and says, " because I always know all the answers and I don't even cheat."

My girl. So cute and so smart!

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

3/14/06

Whew! I haven't "blogged" for quite awhile. However there is a very good reason for it! Looking at the calender today, I realized, I have had at least one sick kid every day for a month! One minute they are fine, the next they have come down with some bug. Connor and I were up all night Sunday, throwing up. We woke up yesterday to Harmony throwing up. By the end of the day Connor and Harmony had stopped throwing up but Ethan had started. When Harmony went to bed last night, she had a really high fever. Will this ever end? My goodness! I am so tired of washing sheets covered in throw up! I am anxious for Spring, and letting them play outside and get over some of these sicinesses!

I heard from Ben yesterday. If his flight didn't get canceled again, he was on his way to Kabul today for a conference. I believe that he will be there for 2 weeks but I am not too sure of that. It could be only a week. I know he was looking forward to going because in Kabul they have a Burger King! I wanted to let people know that of the packages that I am aware of, he has recieved all. I know he has recieved his card from TJ, the pkg from Mom & Dad Kennedy, the pkg from his parents, his Grandma and I am not sure what else. He appreciates them all. Right now, I guess they have run out of mayo out there, so I have to go and get some to send. It makes you think how lucky we are over here, that you can just run to the store and get some mayo where there they have to wait weeks for shipments.

Harmony is doing well. She had a big timeline project that she had to have done by last Friday. She loved working on it. Cutting out pictures, using glitter and stickers and everything else. It turned out cute! She is a hard worker and I have been very impressed with the work that she does at school. I had to have a conference with her teachers about her handwriting last week. She kept getting marked down and her reading teacher told me that sometimes what happens is kids that are really good in all of their subjects sometimes the handwriting is ignored,thinking that it will come later but if you don't fix it now, it won't happen. So her regular teacher, her reading teacher and I have all been working with her and I can't believe the changes. She showed me some of her work that was up in the hall at school and I couldn't believe that it was hers. It looked soooo good. She really worked hard and I am proud of her!

Pre-school was canceled for the boys yesterday. You would have thought the world had ended with how much Ethan cried. He loves preschool. Loves it. His teacher Ms Skees is so sweet and he just loves to be there. He has so much fun. The last time that he was throwing up, I told him he wasn't able to go and he cried and said, "please Mommy, if you let me go, I will bring my bowl to throw up in". Precious. Ethan is getting really excited for his birthday. I remember how long the time felt between mine and Tommy's birthday. Even though it was less then a month it seemed forever. I am sure that is how it is for Ethan. Ethan so far has a list of 28 kids that he wants to invite! I can't get him to trim his guest list so I said no to Chuck E Cheese. There is this really great park here called Mt. Trashmore and so that is where we are going to be going. I know he will have fun. I keep telling him that I am not going to let him turn 5. He is just growing too fast, so he looks at me with his little Ethan smile and said, " Mommy do you know what? When I turn 16 I am going to get my driving license." Don't remind me...

Connor is still obsessed with Star Wars. The other day there was a 2 hour documentary about the making of the original movies on the history channel, and they watched a good hour of it. The other two like it a lot too. Last week, I was really behind in my laundry and so horror of all horrors, no clean star wars shirts or underwear! He cried and threw a fit. He was so mad, and said he would just wear his jammies to school. I finally convinced him and put the load in that morning, with him watching! He did get to wear his Darth Vader shoes though! When I dropped him off at preschool one of his teachers asked him where his star wars shirt was. I just said please don't bring it up again! That kid. He has been sleeping with me since he has been sick and he is such a little snuggly guy. He looks so sweet when he is asleep!

Ivan, is constantly on the go. You can not turn your back on him. Yesterday, he managed to push the screen door open and go outside. Then while I was upstairs, he got an almost completely full bag of goldfish...and dumped them all over the floor. He keeps me on my toes for sure! However he is learning some fun stuff. He has learned how to play peek-a-boo. It is precious because half the time he covers his face, the other half he puts them on his head. He has also learned to clap and wave and has been weaned from his bottle. No walking yet but I do find him standing up all the time. So I am sure it will come soon. However, I don' t know if I am ready for that!

I can't believe it is almost spring. 2.5 weeks will have Ben gone for 3 months. We are halfway through! It is hard to believe. The weather here the last few days has been so warm, hitting 83 one day, and has been confusing for the kids. They keep asking me if it is summer, knowing that is when Ben comes home. It makes me sad. We are getting there though and the time seems to be flying. Soccer starts a week from Sat. and the kids are anxious. This past Sat. a strike group came home after a 6 month deployment. One of the ships had 5000 sailors on it. It made me happy because a couple of my friends husbands were on there but at the same time it made me very jealous. I can't wait until Ben comes home!

Sunday, March 05, 2006

update

Life moves fast. It is amazing how fast sometimes. I can't believe it is already the 5th of March. Sometimes it feels like Ben just left a week ago. Although we are going on our 3rd month. 5th total. I think being able to IM with him every day has really helped!

Harmony is doing well. She has moved up into the 2nd grade reading class and feels that it is perfect for her. She enjoys being in there, and has made a new friend, that she talks about a lot. She is still doing cheerleading although it is almost over. She has 2 more weeks. I think that the last game is actually a pizza party. She has worked hard on her dance and learning cheers and jumps. We still haven't recieved her pics from the photographer but I will send them when I do. She went to a bowling birthday party and really enjoyed her first time bowling.

Poor Ethan was sick all day Friday. He woke up at 4 am throwing up. When I told him he wasn't going to be able to school he cried and cried. " But Mommy, school is my favoritest place." I told him that if he went to school that he would just get the other kids sick. To which he replied, " that is ok Mommy, I will just bring my bowl and throw up in there." That kid is full of answers. He woke up yesterday feeling fine. We have had our share of sickness in the pst couple of weeks and I am anxiously awaiting the time we are all healthy again!

Connor also had a birthday party yesterday. His friend Alex invited him over. Ethan, since he was feeling better, went too. They had a great time. It is fun for me to watch him interact with other kids. He still talks about his Star wars birthday party all the time. It is his favorite subject! He was so excited when we found Star Wars shoes at Payless the other day. They were the bargain price of $7 so I said sure. Of course he wanted to come home and send a picture to his Dad of his new shoes. Cute.

Ivan is a little wild man. He is crawling on everything! He can climb onto both couches and our chair. He has learned how to wiggle out of his high chair. So I had to make the seatbelt a lot tighter! Same thing goes for shopping carts. He is funny because he is very picky over who he lets hold him. One of the YW in our ward, he is perfectly happy to have her carry him around. Where other people he is around all the time, he will just cry and cry. He is complex!

As for me, I am hanging in there. Still trying to lose weight, will that battle ever end? Scrapbooking, couponing and taking care of the kids. I taught a lesson today in YW about the importance of having a positive attitude about our roles as women. Couldn't have come at a better time!