Life lessons at the Gas Station

Today I realized another reason why I love our van-the middle windows roll down so when I pump gas the kids can be watching and learning how it all works!

Corrine, Ammon & Rebecca loved being able to watch and ask questions about pumping the gas. Ammon & Corrine got out and cleaned the windows for me. They ended up dirtier then before-but it's a learning process.

Ammon turned the camera around and got his view of me pumping the gas.

This may have seemed like such a small thing to someone else at the gas station, but to me it was a big thing. I became a mom to raise our children. To teach them about the world, and in turn to be taught about life. This was a way for me to be able to pass on knowledge that I have to them-even if it was just pumping gas into the van.

Going on Tour

Simeon's been talking about going on tour with the 6th grade band for weeks. Today was the day and we started it off at the wrong school! Thankfully a friend saw us drop Simeon off and called me to figure it out. She was already bringing a van load of kids, so she took him along. 

I was able to chaperone the tour, so I was able to participate in the day with him. There were around 60 kids split between 2 buses, so there was alot of counting and roll taking to make sure all the kids were accounted for.

The kids have gotten really good on their instruments! Next year at South East they are going to sound even better.

Simeon was the only Baritone in the band.

It was a fun day of touring the 3 schools that the band kids come from. We started at Hoover, then went to Longfellow. Then we headed out to the Coralridge Mall for lunch. We ended the day at Lemme playing for their own peers. Dad, Rebecca and Grandma Smith came to hear the performance.

Arianna, April, ??, Julia, Nick, Kayla, Simeon, ?? and Megan (down front).

Mother's Day 2013

This was a wonderful Mother's Day. Johann and the kids made me breakfast in bed, complete with a Monkey card and iTunes gift card.
When the kids asked what I wanted for Mother's Day I told them a 10 day trip to Hawaii. 5 days with a nanny for the kids, and 5 days without a nanny for family time. Johann said he could fly me there, but that was all. So then I said we could just go to Florida. Again not going to happen. So next best thing-we had a wet weekend with all baseball games cancelled so at the last second we booked a trip to The Wilderness in Wisconsin Dells and headed there for the weekend. It was the perfect get a way and if we couldn't go to Hawaii or Florida this was the next best place.
I love these sweet kids that Johann and I have been entrusted with. They make life entertaining, loud, fun, stressful, full of love, chaotic, meaningful. I'm so greatful to be a mother for the past 12 years.

Our new 12 year old

How in the world did our 1st born child turn 12 years old today? Seriously HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?  Wasn't he just going into elementary school last year?

Now he's just shy of 5 feet tall and his feet are as big as mine. Not only has he grown physically, he has grown mentally and emotionally so much this past year. He's getting more teenager to him then child. It's exciting and somewhat sad to see it happen. What blows my mind the most is that in just 2 years he could have a drivers permit. YES a drivers permit!! Crazy to put it mildly.

Simeon is really growing into a sweet, kind caring young man. He has a serious, get things done side and a very impulsive, do it before thinking side to him. He is very bright and athletic. He LOVES to read, is a bit obsessed with his Nook (and not just for books), loves to camp, loves to talk, wants to do everything he can, is getting quite good at the baritone, is full of energy and loves to listen to grown ups conversations. He's constantly making bows and arrows outside, getting into stick sword battles with Simeon, making up games on his ripstick with Joe and writing in his own language Rickums. We love our Simeon!

A short interview with our newly minted 12 year old Simeon-

What's the best thing about being 12? I get the Aaronic priesthood. I get to go to Southeast Junior High.
Friends- Carter Westlake, Nick Cronk, Sam Lewers, Joe Ring, Kyle Hefferly, Jonathan Brown, Joshua Cahoon and Joe Fischer.
Favorite school subject-Science
When I grow up-Chemist, to find the cure for leukemia cancer.
Favorite books- Legacy and Sentinels (both by R.A. Salvatore & Geno)
Favorite movie-Hobbit
Favorite game or electronic game-PS3 (Skyrim), Nook (Bad Piggies)
Most nervous for this year-getting to class on time at Southeast.
Most excited for at Southeast-LUNCH! I heard they have lots of choices and you don't have to get just one thing, and it's made there and it's fresh from the store that day.

For his birthday breakfast he wanted a bear claw from Day Light donuts. Then we made a mad dash to our early morning Spanish classes. For lunch at school he wanted Taco Bell. He was so sweet and kind to have mom, dad and Rebecca come have lunch with him and he wasn't the slightest bit embarrassed. His school treat were bomb pops. For dinner he wanted a Mexican spread. We had Spanish rice, my amazing (by our kids at least) beans, tacos, burritos and fixings to go with it all.
Simeon was suppose to have baseball practice and Corrine a softball game, but luckily for us it rained pretty good this afternoon and the city closed all the parks, so they both got cancelled. That meant we got to spend more family time together eating DQ treats while walking on the path by the river.

This year for presents he got a very nice sleeping bag, and sleeping mat from us. He also got sent on a scavenger hunt through the house to find his last present-a set of 3 street hockey balls. From family he got money, Legos, Nook gift card and more money.

A cute birthday story. At his family party he wanted a chocolate chocolate chip cake. We stuck the candles into his cake slice, but it started falling apart. Simeon asked to light the candles. So I'm holding the candles up and he lights the 1, then turns the match the wrong way to light the 2 and it burns his fingers, so he drops in on the table. He quickly blows it out and picks the match up. Meanwhile I thought the 1 was stable so I let go and it tumbles over. We caught it before it went and lit the 2 and sang Happy Birthday while his candles balanced crazily against each other.

As mom I've gone through some emotions with this birthday. Each birthday is special for each of our kids.  But turning 12 is huge for Simeon. he'll be be graduating from primary and going into the Young Men's program at church. He'll get the Aaronic Priesthood and will be able to pass the Sacrament. He will also be graduating from Elementary school and will be in Junior High next fall. Seeing Simeon so grown up and healthy has had me in tears many times this week. He wasn't guaranteed this birthday or any after his 5th birthday when he got leukemia. Each birthday I am so greatful that he is here and healthy and happy.

We love you Simeon. We're so proud of the amazing young man you have grown into!

Happy Birthday!!

Having fun in March with Rebecca

This sweet girl and I have had so much fun playing this month. She loves to learn so we find ourselves doing lots of school activities. This month as flown by will very few updates so enjoy a collection of Rebecca pictures from March.

Letters, letter everywhere. From the bathtub to Banana grams, to Bob books to writing family names before bed time on her magnetic writing board.

Crafts and learning. I get to teach Rebecca's class at church. We learned about being thankful day and night. We made these pictures with glow in the dark stars. We also made a tent in the classroom and went under to see our stars glowing.

We did some shopping. This girls LOVES to shop and is mostly happy to talk with me while we shop, as long as she's not hungry or tired. Our favorite stores are Target and Costco. The samples at Costco really help make that store super fun! Any where we go she can make it fun. At Target on day she found a mirror to make silly faces and crazy actions into.

Winter just doesn't want to go away. On our way into swimming lessons it was snowing big snow flakes. We stopped and played in them and catch them on our tongues. She exclaimed "It looks like Christmas!" 

Rebecca had her last dance class this month. We were able to be in there to watch. She was so excited to show off for us. She loved her dance class! She wanted to bring her teacher flowers, and also give one to each of her friends. It was the sweetest thing!!

Rebecca has really gotten into giving HUGE hugs and kisses. She needs to give hugs and kisses at random times during the day. She also needs to give and receive at least 2 hugs and kisses before bed every night. She'll get up from dinner and give everyone a hug and kiss before going back to eating. It's simply adorable!!

Oh Rebecca you are such a joy to have in our family. It's amazing how much love you have brought into our family and how much love you have to give to all of us. 

I think you sweet girl and made out of love, hug & kisses.

Seriously that's what happened!

Yesterday afternoon we were up in Cedar Rapids for Simeon's baseball games. Between the games the boys  and coaches we're taking some batting practice on an open field. Johann was taking some hits and decided to bunt the ball. When he bunted it, the ball instead of going forward, flipped up and hit his sunglasses, which dug into his cheek giving him a nice cut.
He came over to me about 15 minutes after it happened and asked if I had any thing to wipe some blood off with. He took his glasses off and he had a big cut with now dry blood coming down from it. We cleaned it off the best we could and with his glasses on no one could really see it. We thought we'd be heading to the ER for stiches after the game, because he wasn't hurt enough to leave right then.

This morning after he cleaned it really well we saw that it probably was alright that we didn't get stitches, but it does have a pretty deep cut. He may still get a black eye to go along with the cut.
At church today he got alot of questions as to what happened. His responses "You should see the other guy!" and "I got into a bar fight," were more believable then the truth of "I took a ball off my sunglasses during warm ups yesterday". But that's the true story, unbelievable as it may be.

Boys campout

When the kids came home from school today the boys hatched a plan to make a tent outback and sleep in it. They started with just a small blanket under them, another small one over them and their thin sleeping bags to lay in. It was in the mid 30's with light snow flurries outside while they were hanging out in this improvised tent. They then got a tarp to give them more shelter from the wind and hopefully trap more warm air in.

Dad came home about this time and helped them get the tarp to protect them even more. We got them to put some mats under them to get another layer from the cold wet ground.

At bed time the boys got layered up in warm clothes, warmed up rice bags to put in their sleeping bags. They headed out with books and a lantern for light. It was so cold, but Simeon assured me that the tarp was keeping some warm air in.

I love Simeon's face sneaking out in the top corner of this picture!

After about an hour the came in spooked saying they heard a loud bang  and saw black smoke in the sky and finished the night warm in their beds.

We were set to get near record lows for the night down around 23 degrees. We were going to let them make it as long as they could.

Rebecca was pretty jealous of their tent outside. There was no way she was going to be sleeping outside especially since she started coughing yesterday, so we set up the little tent in the front room and she spent the night in there with her baby dolls where it was nice & warm. She said when Corrine got home from her party that there wouldn't be any room for her because of all her baby dolls!

This summer when it gets warmer at night we'll probably have quite a few camp outs with the kids making their own shelters.