I'M ACTUALLY POSTING!!!!!
We have been a bit busy around here. I wish I could relay the amount of stuff that goes on here daily.
We are so excited to have so many wonderful activities and friends in our area that we find that we spend very little time at home.
Right after Christmas, we were so lucky to have our good friends from residency come and spend the New Years holiday with us. It was a wonderful sleep-over and we were able to get a good amount of playtime in for the kiddos, too.
Most recently, we have been going to the Sierra slopes in Lake Tahoe - specifically, Northstar at Tahoe - every weekend. Typically, we have been going to church, coming home for a Sunday dinner, then taking off in the evening for the cabin for a quick over-nighter and waking up to snow in the morning. Then after a fun day, we head home Monday evening for home. As for the kids: swim practice for Lathan, tennis lessons for Kaelan, and tennis for Mama at the Fitness club. JJ has been asking for some fun time, so we are working on getting him tennis time and he has been lucky enough to get some swimming, tennis, and play-dates in, too. Haefan is busy keeping up with Mama and he gets a lot of play time at the dance studio and has enjoyed every moment of it!
Lathan LOVES his swim activities. He really likes the idea of doing tennis with his best bud, but he understands that he can't have all the activities. He is in piano and doing very well. He is a natural with music and I am so proud of him. He works so hard to do well at everything he does. He is very hard on himself, so I have to be diligent about complimenting him and his efforts very often. He just completed his first swim meet with his swim team and although he swam really good times, he DQ'ed in 3 or (4 maybe?) of the 6 events. The two freestyle relays were DQ'ed because he missed the wall once doing his flip-turns. He DQ'ed in the butterfly portion of the 100-IM because when he dove in, his goggles came off and he used his hands to take them off and was ultimately DQ'ed for his illegal hand movements. On a side note, he swam the entire IM with the goggles in his hand! He was very impressive in the first freestyle swim because it was the first time he'd ever done a 200 in a meet! That's 8 long lengths (or laps) for a little body!!! Overall, he was such a stud. It's not easy doing an outdoor swim meet, doing 6 events in January!
Kaelan has been our Superman. He has come along, supported his brothers, been patient about homework, and has picked up tennis and skiing like he was born with it. He is so athletic, but his attention span length for things is fickle. He still is in love with both skiing and tennis, which tells me that we just haven't been focusing on the right stuff for him until now. He just thought he was such a super-stud last week that he broke all the ski rules we have as a family and went kamikaze down one of the runs and fell, twisting his leg a full 180-degrees into a stuck position (only strangers were around to help him) and hurting his shin so badly from the boot that he is now with crutches. He had the pleasure of going down on a sled, going to the first aid, getting x-rays, etc. Bottom line: he was with Dad and I will let him explain the chaos of what ensued on the "last run." We planned on taking the next few weeks off, anyway, so he got lucky that he's not missing much right now. He did miss school this whole week past because he couldn't walk at all, so he's been on independent study. It's been an interesting week :)
JJ has been a PRO on skis! He is so happy to go as fast as his brothers, but he is missing a key part to the process. He can't stop on demand. He needs a little work there, so until that happens, he is on the ski-leash. He is good at his turns and being aware of his surroundings - mostly, so it won't be long before we get Haefan out there! He is happy to be a Sunbeam, except he misses the church snacks dearly. His favorite things is listening to church songs while we drive. I have to admit that around 1pm in the afternoon, it's hard for me to take because it puts me to sleep while I'm driving. A bit scary sometimes, so now I have a bubble-gum stash in the car for those moments.
Haefan is my big boy that is so quick to join his brothers and their routines. He is busy on the slopes with Dad in the mornings in the backpack while Daddy snowshoes throughout the snow trails. He loves it and is quite demanding of Dad, always saying "GO!" when he slows down.
The dance studio is coming along and we are slowly building our enrollment. We are having issues with the heating and hoping (and praying) for a solution there; but other than that, we are going along with few hitches.
We were able to go a little bit slower this week because we had our very bestest friends from med school come out our direction for an unrelated missionary farewell. We had them stay the whole week with us and they put up with our toy room as their bedroom for their stay. They just left today and we are excited to see them someday soon! I can't even remember if I got any pictures of them, but I'm doubting that I did, sadly. Their two daughters are the exact same age as the two younger boys. At one point we had them, and my business partner's kids (two girls and a 1-yr old boy) running around the house while I was trying to just keep up with my own routine. I tried to describe it to Dave by saying it was like a round-robin where I would help one child, then the next, then the next - anything from potty, toys and sharing, drinking water, snacks, coloring activities, etc. - only to find that finally when all kids were ok, it would start again. So I felt like I was working so hard - to the point of exhaustion - only to realize that I had yet to get anything done! I don't know how those big families do it!! I had 9 kids here and I was at my limit at the end of 2 hours. Oh my!!! It was tough for me and took a few hours for me to decompress. I should say that this is with everyone behaving, mostly, and being really self-entertained. Yikes, I'm a wuss, I know.
Dave has been a fabulous husband and help throughout this entire New Year. We have been able to spend some time together on dates and even just hanging out in the evening, which just seems more precious than ever now.
Some of the big things we are gearing up for include a short cruise to Cabo San Lucas in a week, family visits, birthday season, a "man trip," and a girlie vacation. I also get a bonus girls weekend with a few close friends and I going out to Utah for Women's Conference at BYU in late April. I certainly have got my work cut out for me!
Old AND new pics were supposed to be uploaded for this VERY spot, but because I kept getting error messages, I gave up after an hour. I will try again sometime this week (I worked so hard to get all the pics off the camera and onto the computer that I can't just give up now!).
I hope you are all well and I would love to hear from you!
-g
