chocoholic

Miya loves chocolate. You might wonder how I know that my baby loves chocolate. Well, besides the fact that she is her mother's daughter, she found out for herself on the drive home from a football game.

My friend had given Miya a mini snickers bar (wrapped, of course) to play with. By the time I got home she had gnawed through the wrapper and was delighted to be eating her first chocolate.

She was not so happy when I took it away from her.

On Halloween when the kids dumped out their loot, Miya crawled straight for a snickers bar and started trying to break into it. She's a smart one!

monster dash

Tyler did his first half marathon on October 30th, 2010. I didn't get any good running photos, but here are a few from after the race. It was a beautiful, crisp day, and he did fantastic!

He ran 13.1 miles in 1 hr 37 min.

I just call him speedy now.

I drove down to the race site with the kids to see Tyler at the midpoint of the race and at the finish line. Well, there were thousands in the race and it was chaos. I finally stopped to ask directions at a point where runners were passing by, and as luck would have it, Tyler ran by a few seconds later. I got to cheer him on for a brief moment and I was so glad to see him midrace!

Shortly after that I got our minivan wedged between a bus and oncoming traffic. Just when I thought all hope was lost I found a parking spot and then saw a friend bike right up to us and guide us in to the finish line.

Someone was definitely looking out for us.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!!

(click HERE for some spooky entertainment)

Duluth

We finally made it up to Duluth to see Lake Superior and some of the sights. The weather was beautiful and the lake felt like the ocean. Here are some of the photos.

The lift bridge-amazing to watch it lift for the various sized ships passing through

The tour boat ride. Notice the sweettarts the kids have--nearly started a riot fighting over them later in the ride, but they sure enjoyed them :)

Grant braving the frigid water

Ty was eventually in up to his thighs--he's a fish

Garrett, too

Shayla playing on the boat in park point

Gooseberry Falls State Park was AMAZING!

Hiking at Gooseberry

The upper falls

Grant throwing rocks into the lake

Tyler teaching Miya how to throw rocks (as opposed to EAT rocks like she wanted to)

Tyler and I wondering why we thought sleeping with 5 kids in 1 hotel room was a good idea...

Lake Superior

Factoids for you: It is so deep you could put the empire state building in the lake it would all be below the surface.

The area of the lake is roughly the size of Indiana.

If you flooded North and South America with the water in Lake Superior it would cover the entire land mass with 1 foot of water.

Miya spent a lot of time in her stroller

Enjoying the view

On the boat tour

FEET! Notice Miya's painted toes :)

Although we had our moments, the kids were troopers and it was a great family-togetherness weekend.

Tyler used his creative-balancing skills to get this photo of all of us together.

Hopefully more posts to come!

kid funnies

Hello, neglected blog. Sometimes I wonder why I have a blog, just so I can feel guilty about not posting most likely :)

Just had to record a few of the funny things being said around here lately.

Grant: I know what "shoo fly" means.

Mom: Really, what does it mean?

Grant: It means you take a shoe and you squish a fly with it.

Garrett was talking about talents he has and said, "pretty much everything is a talent."

Shayla thought that was ridiculous and said, "Yeah, right, Garrett. My nose isn't a talent!"

Garrett shot back, "Well if you could wiggle it it would be."

One of the best things about having young kids is the constant free entertainment. Who needs TV? But if you need more of a laugh, check out this. Tyler and I went to see Brian Regan in Minneapolis lately and laughed so hard our faces hurt.

Hope to post more soon!

Grateful

I've been thinking a lot about gratitude lately. I have so much to be grateful for and sacrament meeting today was all about gratitude. Garrett has had a high fever for 9 days and today was his first without a fever. There is something about being sick (or worse, having someone you love sick) that makes me appreciate good health. On my mission everyone would always wish each other good health and I thought it was kind of funny. The older I get the less funny it is and the more I join in whole-heartedly wishing others good health. Saude!

I am grateful for good friends who have taken such good care of us this week and for family who have prayed to get Garrett better. I believe in the power of prayer. I believe in the power of gratitude, even for our trials. I just read this: "fear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in EVERYTHING give thanks;" (d&c 98:1) I think that means we should even be thankful for our trials and sicknesses, for they have a hand in shaping us and teaching us. I'm pretty good at being thankful for trials AFTER they have passed, not in the middle of them :)

So for now I'm thankful that Garrett gets to go to his 1st day of kindergarten tomorrow morning. I thankful for my friend who watched Garrett this morning so I could take the sacrament. I'm thankful for those who gave rides to my kids, brought delicious food and called and gave moral support. I'm thankful for doctors who tried to figure out what was wrong with our little guy. And I'm wishing you all good health to last a lifetime!

1st day of school

Ty and Shayla excited for 4th and 2nd grade to start

Garrett has had a fever for 6 days now--poor guy. We can't figure out what is wrong and he is so sad he is missing the first week of Kindergarten. No fun.

Miya weighed in at 15 lbs. 8 oz. at her 9 month check, putting her at the 4th percentile. So, I'm trying to supplement (but she won't take a bottle). This lovely concoction is applesauce with a scoop of formula. Yum!

I have a whole summers worth of things to post about--we'll see how long it takes me to actually post it. Fun trips to Kansas, visit from the Brimhalls and Mom, Trip to Utah to visit family and the cabin and so much more. Hope you all are getting settled back into the the school year and fall, too.

Dates

Having 5 kids makes it pretty hard to spend one-on-one time with any of them. We've tried in the past to take them out on one-on-one dates but then things would get crazy and we'd stop doing them. This summer we scheduled a date just every other Saturday, Tyler and I trading off. We had to set some parameters so no one broke the bank. They get to pick some (free) activity (park, raquetball, swimming, etc.) followed by their choice of treat.

So far we have played raquetball followed by cheese curds and custard at Culver's with Grant, Garrett and Shayla. Ty decided to mix things up a bit and chose to go running at Willow River State Park followed by cheese curds and custard at Culver's. It has been such a great thing.

Grant and I played raquetball this past Saturday and then chatted over our lunch. I asked him how he liked sharing a room with Shayla, and he confided in me that he liked sharing with Shayla but he didn't like his bed. Who wouldda thought? Yes, it turns out that he really doesn't care for his blue sheets. He wants red, lots of red. And not just the blankets. He wants to paint the whole bed red. Now, would I ever have known this if I hadn't been out on a date with him? Probably not. Now I have to figure out how to break it to him that I'm not going to paint his bunk bed red, but that we could try and get him a red blanket for his bed.

Ask a question...

Driving home from church today I asked the kids what they learned about. All of them piped up with what they learned and I got a kick out of their responses:

Ty: I learned about Elijah
Shayla: I learned about the 5 loaves and 2 fishes
Garrett: I learned about sharing
Grant: I learned about coloring!!!!

Happy Father's Day!

I know this is super late, but I am so grateful for the father that Tyler is to our kids. He sets such a great example for them to follow and loves to play with them right on their level. Some of his specialties are making up silly songs to sing, teaching them how to play every sport known to man, wrestling/tickling, riding bikes together, raquetball, hiking, and yard work/gardening.

I asked the kids what they liked about their Dad and this is what they said:

Ty: I love to go running with Dad

Shayla: I like that Dad is kind and thoughtful

Garrett: I like that Dad plays with me

Grant: I like that he plays with me. Like Miya toys, foot pass, and I'm all done.

Miya: I love hanging upside down, cranning my neck to follow my Daddy across the room. And I love it when he changes my diaper :)

Last Sunday Tyler came home from a full day of meetings and had an hour before his next round of meetings. He looked at me and could tell I was at the end of my rope. He got the kids fed and movie put on so I could go take a nap. He is always doing little things like that and they mean the world to me! Happy super-late Father's Day!

Independence Day!

We made tie-dye shirts on Monday July 5th. The kids loved it--Grant kept running around saying "We are a tie-dye family!!"

(I bought the kit 3 years ago and we finally did it! I just had to buy 2 new shirts and bump everyone else up a size or two :)

Silly faces

Grant getting ready for the softball game

Garrett getting face-painted

Miya enjoyed her first 4th of July, complete with church picnic, tug-o-war and foot races, watermelon, fireworks and swimming. (you can kind of see her doing her tongue-twisting trick. She does it non-stop, just to show off. I can't for the life of me do it, but Tyler can. I think it is a talent you are born with or not.)

We had a few snaps, sparklers and firecrackers to light off at home, which everyone but Grant enjoyed. After retreating to the house for a round of firecrackers Grant emerged and said, "Can we never do that again?"

It was a great weekend to reflect on the blessings of family and freedom. I recently read "The 5,000 year leap" and have been deeply impressed by the freedoms we so abundantly enjoy.
So many inspired souls fought to lay the foundation for this great nation, and so many have lived and died to protect that freedom. I keep thinking "where much is given, much is required" and want to do all I can to help preserve the freedom I enjoy everyday. Cause freedom isn't really free. So from one proud American to another, happy Independence Day (just a wee bit late)!

summer swimming

Somehow it looked bigger in the store...

Time Out for Women

In our first ever sister's retreat I met up with my Mom and sisters and s-i-l in Pittsburg for Time Out for Women. It was such a wonderful weekend -- the only thing that would have made it better was if Sarah had been there. Next year, Sarah!Emily, Ang, Kris, McKay, Miya and Mom playing "Settlers" at the hotel and feasting on delicious popcorn (thanks, Em!)

Downtown Pittsburg was really pretty. This advertisement for PNC bank was made out of different plants--quite creative. (This one's for you, Seth!)

Kris, McKay, Lani and Mom



Kris, Ang and Mom by the same fountain

McKay got to borrow one of Miya's outfits after having a blow-out at the Chinese restaurant--what a cutie (but he still looks like a little man, even in ruffles)

I LOVE McKay's expression in this one!! Fierce!

Sisters, sisters...there were never such devoted sisters :)

Running into Danielle, a dear friend from Indiana was the icing on the cake!

They kept trying to hold hands. Cousin bonding taking place here.

My favorite quotes/thoughts of the weekend:

"Selective Neglect"

"The hardest part of being blind is...not seeing"

Hilary Week's "Climb every mountain" song, laundry version

listening to beautiful music and being inspired and filled with hope and joy,

and laughing a lot, because laughter heals the soul.

Can't wait for next year!

attempted photo shoot

I thought I would take some photos of the kids for Father's Day.

What was I thinking? Getting 5 kids to all look and smile at the same time proved nearly impossible. The last one is my best...i think.

Notice Garrett's face. He wanted to hold Miya and refused to smile without her.

Now notice Ty's face. Now look at Garrett's. Oh, and how about Miya's happy face.

I wanted to cry, too.

It didn't help that Miya was tired and hungry.

Train...

Train wreck

Almost all of them are looking at the camera...notice Miya pulling Shayla's hair

Shayla was crying a milisecond after this shot.

They are all kind of smiling, and almost all looking.

Success!