11 Years

Victoria is now 11 years old and turning into a wonderful young lady. In case you didn't know, she is a people person. She wants to have someone around her, always. This past year she has really wanted to have a friend over any chance she could. Sometimes I get overwhelmed, not at having a friend over, but the process of trying to organize a playdate with friends' parents or grandparents. A lot of them work and it's hard to get a hold of them, so I started to encourage her to set up playdates at school.

 She has great friends and they help her to fulfill whatever it is she needs for her social self. It is for this reason, and many others including the fact that we don't have a landline phone for when she babysits at home, that she got a phone for her birthday. Actually, it is the same phone as mine, lucky girl! She will be a working girl with babysitting jobs and that might also help her fill her social needs. Yesterday, she texted her friend and set up something for today after school, so nice! I'm not quite sure how many of her friends really do have their own phone. According to Victoria, it's everyone, but I do know that not many of them have landline phones either and she feels intimidated calling parents' on their personal phones. Well, now she can just text them herself, assuming she has my permission, of course.

She had already bought the phone with Jason on Tuesday, but opened it yesterday on her birthday.

Now I have to worry about phone abuse!

Being in 5th grade, I've been encouraging her to do some of the challenge activities with her homework so she's ready for middle school next year. She has more homework this year which makes it easier for me to say, "No friends" on certain days. She's progressing really well on the piano, enjoying her tap and ballet classes and the work-out she gets there, and she's taking a 7 week after school sporting class with Austin. It's right at their school and includes coaching for soccer, baseball, and basketball. She has been playing basketball at recess with her friends and the boys at school and this was an easy, inexpensive, introduction to learning some better skills with these popular sports. She really enjoys anything athletic. She still loves to write and draw as well.

Her birthday party was Saturday evening. We streamed the latest pop songs, the girls hung out in the basement and played air hockey and twister, and we had a hot dog bar with all the fixings. I had to incorporate a craft or two, mostly because I can't stand giving out goodie bag junk. Having them make something to bring home is less expensive than buying nice take-home gifts. This year, they made leaf print cards and bat headbands. Some girls really got into it and did a great job. Others, not so much, but they went outside and jumped on the trampoline and ran around in the really nice weather we've been having. We played "I've Never", ate "spider" cupcakes, and she opened many nice gifts. We ended with a fire outside, since it was dark by then, and more running around in the backyard. It seemed to be a great party for this 10/11 year old group.

The whole gang. I guess I didn't take another group one. 

Erik had to help blow out the candles, of course.

This is the one I made.

She added extra bows, so it didn't look as much like a bat, but still super cute!

We love Victoria and are excited for more adventures with her as we enter this different phase!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I feel like every year I keep posting the same things, but every year I have my children's eyes to see things a little differently than the year before. Fall is by far the best season here in Michigan. Sometimes it's shorter than I would like, but this year has been good and it's supposed to continue to be a nice long fall because of the good temperatures. Mid-60s, on average, most days. Not much rain, but just enough.

As has been the case since we moved here 9 years ago, I took my preschooler on his field trip to the apple orchard with his preschool pals. We have two preschool groups from our ward this year, so we all got to go together. I guess the only downfall to autumn this year is that there were less bees in the spring because of some late cold weather, so there were less apples on the trees. That meant the kids couldn't pick their own apple from a tree, but had to pick it out from a bin of apples that had already been picked. Lucky for us, we have our own apple trees, so Erik picked one from our tree the other day. Less apples also means more expensive cider- $8.50 /gallon this year from the cider mills. At least it's not $10/gallon like it was 3 years ago. That was the winter/spring we went to France and had summer weather in March, followed by another freeze. It threw everything off!

Here's this years' pictures of the Plymouth Apple Orchard.

Erik brought the thermometer from the dr kit for some reason...

The four in the back are in his group. 

Anna, the only girl in both groups, and Victor, a friend we helped out that day because his mom had to stay home with a sick sister.

Pretending to be bees pollinating the apple tree.

The apple bins. I guess I didn't get a picture of the trees...

Wagon ride back to the play area.

New this year- hay bales to play on

The Long Awaited GameM

We have been waiting for BYU to come to Michigan for a couple of years. We had decided we wanted all of our kids to go to the game because they wouldn't get to see BYU play for a while again, most likely, and we couldn't decide who to keep home!

BYU fans around here were shaking with excitement! Our very own stake center got to host the fireside with the players and coaches, the night before the game. Victoria ended up going to a birthday party, but we brought her hat to get some autographs for her. We didn't get the most "well-known", but the kids didn't care and Jason got to shake hands with Taysom Hill.

With Tanner Balderree at the fireside.

Two line men and Karissa with her bff Olivia. 

Some great friends of ours put together a tailgate party, which was so fun. People we knew who had lived here before, and since moved away, came and we had a little reunion. We didn't have any family come, but many people hosted family members from all over to come to this game. It was a BIG DEAL here.

Walking to the tailgate party, all pumped up!

Signatures on her hat!

Matt and Adam cooked up good food. Yes, Adam is from MI, but he's in a divided house, like many people are around here.

Then there was the game.


Let me just say that it was the worst game I've ever been to in my life! I don't think I could cheer for one good thing that happened. I take that back, I clapped my hands a few times for a couple of the first downs, but even those were far and few between. We didn't even have possession of the ball most of the game!

Okay, positive side now. My kids, especially Austin, got really good at "making noise" when we were on defense (pretty much the whole game). He loved stomping his feet in the stands for that. Victoria did at the beginning, but she was pretty let-down by the loss, so even stomping her feet lost it's appeal after a while. Since it was the first game the younger three had ever been to, I made sure to point out all the exciting things, besides winning. We had a good view of both sets of cheerleaders. I don't always know what's going on in the field (especially in the nose bleed section), but I know what the cheerleaders are doing, including the names of every stunt! We cheered with the cheerleaders and changed "Lets Go Blue" to "BYU" every time. We enjoyed the band and all the songs played over the loud speakers. When it was time for the wave, we watched, anticipated, and participated, just as if we were having a great game! Before the game, I was worried that if we lost, I would regret bringing our kids with us, but after seeing some of our friends after the game who didn't bring their kids, I think I was better off with the distraction and ended up having a good time. We had stuffed their pockets with star bursts, mine and Jason's with granola bars, and only had to buy water (very expensive water). Another really good thing about the game was the weather. It could have been bad. The other times I've been to games in the Big House I have frozen my buns off. It was perfect. 70 degrees, sunny, with a slight breeze. We sat mostly shaded by the scoreboard, so I didn't even have to worry about the spot on Erik's neck that I forgot to put sunblock on!

One more positive note. We have three teams we follow in our home. BYU, Nebraska, and Michigan. Two of our teams won on Saturday!

Ready for the game!!!

After the game... 

Unexpected Surprise!

A week ago last Friday, Erik surprised me by deciding to pee on the potty. He had wanted nothing to do with it so far, so it really did take me by surprise, even though he will be 4 in November! He did fairly well that weekend, being the first time we ever attempted it with him. After Yoda died though, he started putting up some resistance and I lost any desire to encourage him, for a couple of days. This last Friday, I decided I could not give up so easily. I had to put just a little more effort into it and it worked! He's learning good control and even decided to use the pot for #2 the past couple of days!

Last Tuesday, as mentioned in my last post, was Erik's first day of preschool. It was at our house and today was at Anna's house. Her mom said Erik went on the potty there and did very well in "school".

He's been coming a long way in getting out of his comfort zone. He sometimes wears regular shoes instead of crocs everywhere (crocs are great, but the kid wouldn't even think about wearing something else besides rain boots!)  He has chosen a different shirt to wear to church and a few more options for his everyday pants/shorts and shirts. He participated in story time yesterday and sat on his own mat instead of on my lap. Eating is the same, but maybe he will try something new here soon. I had a meeting at my house today and he filled up bowls of popcorn and passed them to everyone there, on his own accord, and then gave everyone a gummy worm! What a sweetie!

He's very proud of his underwear...

Very. Proud.

Maybe too proud... (okay, I am too!)

Preschool buddies at my house last week. They look goofy here, but they were so engaged in the calendar, stories, crafts, and activities!

Playgroup (the same twins from preschool pictured here- Eriks' besties)

Ready for school at Anna's today. He's holding his gummy work in front of his face. My new bribery this year to get the kids ready for school is: The early bird catches the worm!

RIP Yoda

 Yoda had been suffering for almost a year now. I wrote a blog about it a while back, but here's a recap. I accidentally bought him the wrong food last November and that's when the vomiting started. He's never really had long stretches without vomiting since then, even though he was only on that food for about a week. He got a bladder infection after that and that has been an even bigger problem than the vomiting. He was on antibiotics three times to help it. This last time, the vet also recommended some food for him to help with UTIs. Ironically, that was the type of food I had bought him last year by mistake. He seemed to like it at first, but last week he slowly stopped eating it, and everything else. I didn't notice that as much as I noticed that fact that he was getting pretty skinny and bony. I felt bad giving him his medicine because he seemed so helpless. On Sunday, I knew he was going to die soon. I had some good moments with him, which, given my busy life right now have not been very often. Sunday evening I let him outside because that was his favorite thing to do. He just lay there and enjoyed the nice weather. Suddenly, we noticed that he caught something, so we thought maybe he wasn't too far gone after all! Monday he was back to suffering. I called the vet and she said to stop giving him the meds since he had probably lost his appetite because of it.

Yesterday I taught Erik's first day of preschool! That morning, Yoda had not eaten what was out from the night before, so I gave him a small amount of his old favorite canned food, which he threw back up. Victoria went to school concerned for him. In the middle of preschool I looked at Yoda in his corner and thought he was dead. His eyes were glassy. His fur stuck up in weird places because he was so bony. After looking closer, I saw that he was breathing still and he responded to me when I pet him. I snuck in some love to him throughout the preschool. He didn't eat anything the rest of the day, but did finally change positions. We took him to the vet last night. The last few times his kidneys were tested he just a little above normal, but yesterday the tests yielded the results that he definitely had kidney disease. He was only 6.7 pounds yesterday, almost a pound less than a couple of months ago. He was once a 13 pound cat! They gave him some fluids and told us to feed him whatever he would eat just to make him comfortable. We knew he was going to die soon, but we weren't sure if we should try to make him suffer a little less before he died or not. We gave him tuna last night which he ate well.

This morning, he didn't look well still. I told my kids to say goodbye before they went to school, in case he was gone before they came home. I called Jason and told him I couldn't let Yoda suffer anymore. The vet let me come right in. Now he is happy again!

A recent, favorite place of his to sit.

He enjoyed this cupboard over the summer when all the toys were dumped out.

School Schedule

With the changes of moving the TAG kids to a new school came changes of new times. Our school, Miller, has always started early because it was one of the TAG schools as well the neighborhood school. I'm not really sure why it started earlier since kids from different areas were bussed here which probably made it hard on those families to get to school that early. Now they have made every school start at 8:55, even the TAG school. I was worried about starting 45 minutes later than the previous years because school would end really late. I was also worried because all schools are starting and ending at the same time.

Well, this is day 2 and I have to say that I'm loving it! My kids still wake up the same time. They don't have to rush, the girls can practice the piano, and they can play with Erik while I finish getting ready so after drop-off, we can run our errands without having to go home first! I finally gave in and decided Karissa riding the bus wouldn't be such a bad idea. They only bus the Gallimore TAG kids (grades 3-5) on the buses they ride on. Lucky for us, the bus stop is 6 houses away and the times are better than for other kids at Gallimore. Unlucky for us, since her stop is one of the last stops before school starts and the buses are still figuring out the new routes and whatever, the bus didn't come yesterday, or if it did it was after school started. We only waited 5 minutes after it's arrival time today so I could get my Miller kids to school on time and then drop of Karissa. She came home on the bus yesterday and all was well with that, though it was still later and I didn't see her get off.

 My friend took off from work yesterday to see her girls off for their first day and we divided and conquered a last minute car pool to Gallimore and Miller. Today we kind of expected another problem, so we were prepared with plan B. I guess Austin did well going to his first day of 1st grade with someone he doesn't know that well and without any prep for that situation. My friend, Melissa, said he walked in like he'd been going to that class forever! Victoria has decided she loves her 4th/5th split and her teacher so much that she wants to be a fourth grader so she can do it again! Karissa enjoys her new school with her old teacher and bff, Olivia (Melissa's daughter).

Now, lets see how it goes next week when we factor in the extra activities like dance and piano!

(If you're on facebook, then you saw these pics already. I was hoping to take pics of the bus today or of Austin in front of his class, but there was no bus again! Maybe after school today...)

Get Ready

We've enjoyed our summer of multiple activities, but we're ready for school! Last week we went to Miller Elementary for a meet and greet. Half of our school is going to Gallimore (where the new TAG school will be), including our principal, her office staff, the TAG teachers, some newly hired TAG teachers (three of which are my children's teachers from last year), and the TAG students (Karissa included).  Those loses will be replaced by more than half of the previous Gallimore students, a new principal and office staff, and some new teachers. All summer we've been attending Gallimore TAG socials to help start up the "new" school, but finally we had something at Miller since it will have a lot of changes too. We met some new students and teachers there. We even met Austin's new teacher, though we didn't know he was assigned to her class til yesterday. Austin will be in Mrs. Essenburg's class. He told me after the meet and greet that he is ready for homework again! I love this age when they love school so much!

Victoria will have Mrs. Morrin in a 4th/5th combo. Being a fifth grader and her last year in elementary, she's not very happy about it, but at least I know the teacher is good (something I can't say about the other 5th grade teacher...) Hopefully she'll rediscover that she can still see her besties in the other classes at recess and enjoy this last year at Miller. Meanwhile, Karissa will have the same teacher as last year, Mr. Anderson! Since she will be at a different school it will be nice to have the same teacher. We know his expectations and he knows Karissa, so it should be a positive first year in TAG. The principle actually called me a few weeks ago and asked me if this is something we would want, so it's no surprise! She will also be taking the bus for the first time ever. I was hesitant at first, but found out it will only be the TAG kids grades 3-5 on the bus, so I feel pretty good about it. It will make things a lot easier for me. The bus comes just 6 houses away from our house!


One other big change for us is that Logan and his family moved 2 1/2 hours away. He will be in kindergarten this year, so we wouldn't have seen him much anyhow, but this makes it way less often. They had some fun times with this boy!!

Lego's were the favorite.

Halloween in August