Alan Family Update April 2013

I can't believe it's the end of April already. The kids only have four weeks of school left and spring has officially arrived. Baseball is in full swing and even though it makes week nights kind of hectic we are all really loving it. Even Faith. She spends most of the games on the playground finding friends to play with, creating "cities" in the tanbark, practicing on the bars, etc... Tanner meets his friend, Gus, during Jake's games and the two of them play catch for hours on end. Brian coaches Tanner's team and is helping with Jake's team doing whatever needs to be done. Usually it is first base coaching and field prep. So our lives these days are governed by baseball- which in my book isn't such a bad thing.

Also on the sports front….the Warriors are in the playoffs for the first time since Faith was born. I vividly remember watching the playoffs with Auntie Sue and Mary here and holding my little baby girl in my arms. That was six years ago so having the Warriors in the playoffs again is pretty fun. Game 5 is tonight and the boys will be able to watch at least some of it before bed this time since it starts at 6. They all love seeing Uncle Eric on the sidelines and watching Curry- who Jake got to meet when he turned 8 (we still have a picture of the two of them together) hit his 3 pointers.

Faith is still loving Kindergarten and is an avid reader. She is reading chapter books now- crazy- and will read for long stretches on her own. I got her a "reading pillow" for her bed so she can sit up while she reads each night before going to sleep. Her latest favorite is the Princess Posey series. She is ready for first grade.... but I'm afraid I am really not ready to move past this Kindergarten milestone. She is still doing gymnastics right now but I finally had to bite the bullet and let her sign up for Optimist Cheerleading for the fall. This is the third year she has asked me to do it and I finally had to let go of my bias against cheerleaders and let her give it a shot- even though in my heart I really think it is silly. She will be cheering for Jake's team- the Blue Thunder. She loves art and doing crafts and bouncing on the trampoline. She likes to spell and write notes and recently I found this sign posted on her bedroom door: “No boys alowd! (ecept Dad)”.

Yesterday Faith's best friend, Abby, gave her a BFF necklace. So cute. Faith didn't even know what it meant so I had to explain it to her. But she loves the necklace. She and Abby are inseparable. In fact, she had Abby spend the night a few weekends ago. That was her first sleepover and she loved it! She is growing up so much- she is getting so tall and so independent. She is still her mama's girl, though, and loves snuggles and kisses and tickles. This Saturday she is going to the Merc's annual Father Daughter Dance with Brian. I took her out to get a special new dress and shoes for the event. She is really excited. They will have pictures first, then dinner with fancy drinks, then the dancing begins with a live band. I wish I could be a fly on the wall. I know they will be so cute together.

Talk about independent.... Tanner has really grown up a lot this last year. He has his core group of buddies and they are like the Three Amigos. They are always together. Lately he is into playing kickball and comes home with the absolute dirtiest knees you have ever seen. I guess he slides a lot. But, seriously, I can't keep up with the dirt. He often comes home from school just filthy from head to toe. I let him ride his bike to the Merc and the library this weekend. It was the first time I let him do it without an adult. I made sure Jake knew the rules: wait up for his little brother, stop at all intersections, and walk your bike across the streets. In a weak moment of "helicopter parenting" I have to admit I got in my car and watched from a few blocks back to make sure they were being safe. But after seeing that they were following my directions really well I regained my senses and went home. They never saw me and never knew that I was checking up on them.

He, too, is an amazing reader and reads every night at bedtime. Lately he likes the books by Andrew Clements (Frindle, The Report Card, etc...). Brian is reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe out loud right now and he is really into that story, too. Last week he won the character trait award for the first grade: Perseverance. Two students from each grade are picked to win and they are given an award and some cookies during a little after school celebration. 

He loves math and art and baseball and bouncing on the trampoline.  He is loving playing on the Yankees machine pitch team this year. His group of buddies are all on the team for the third year in a row and Brian says he will keep coaching them until it no longer works for Tanner. Jake stopped being able to be coached effectively by Brian around age 7 but so far Tanner seems to really like it still. Their team is so good- all the boys can hit and most can field. They are turning plays at first and second on a regular basis. It's so much fun to watch because he just so obviously loves it. He decided to play flag football in the fall and he is excited to give that a try. He spent two years watching Jake play Optimist Flag and has been anxiously awaiting the day when he would be old enough to join. That's going to make September and October REALLY BUSY with both boys playing football and Faith cheerleading. Wow. I'd better start gearing up now!

Jake only has four weeks left in fourth grade. Fifth grade just seems SO OLD and it is killing me.  He has had a great year at school and has loved his teacher, Mr. Borjian.   He still loves math and while he is a great reader, it is hard finding books that he likes. He's still not into fantasy but has at least branched out of just sports books into realistic fiction and is willing to listen to some fantasy when we read out loud. His anxiety is mostly behind him at this point (keeping fingers and toes crossed).   Mostly school for him is social, though. He has his group of friends and it's a round robin of who is his best friend any given week. They all play kickball together and, from what I can gather, talk about which girls they like. He is still quite the ladies man- he gets notes passed to him from girls all the time telling him how cute, funny, and nice he is. It is so funny to me to see these girls with crushes on him and I am loving the fact that he will still share it all with me. Oh, my… I know we will have our hands full with that one in just a few years time. (Oh, wait... our hands are full with that one NOW... just not with regards to dating and girls yet!). 

He is really enjoying playing AAA baseball again this year. I am so glad we encouraged him to stay in AAA instead of moving up to Majors. He gets to play all of every game in key positions: pitcher, short stop, second base, catcher instead of playing right field for a few innings every game like last year. He is definitely a leader on the team and it is great to watch him rally his teammates, cheer his team on, etc... A lot of the games are held up here at Hidden Springs which makes it easy and fun since Tanner and Faith can have the run of the school playground and keep themselves entertained during the games so I can actually watch. He won't play All Stars this summer, but will play Summer Ball, coached by Brian in late June and July.  

Summer is coming up fast. The kids will spend 15 hours a week with Emerald and her family. We are so lucky.  Emerald is the mom I always wished I would be but rarely come close to approximating: She does cool  arts and crafts like paper mache and lets the kids get the house messy and muddy and takes them to the creek and plays game after game with them all. She is the mother of 4 boys and my three love hanging out there with them. She makes things for lunch like Kale Smoothies (and they actually like them!). We all love Emerald and those 15 hours a week help Brian and I keep our sanity while trying to work from home full time and have all three kids off school. In addition to Emerald’s we have lots of little trips planned. In June we will go to Sun Valley for five nights and stay at my boss’ house. In July we are heading to Redfish Lake Lodge for two nights with Sheila, Wayne, and two of their grandkids. In August we head to CA for a Giants game, Train concert, my b’day, and Mary’s 70^th bday celebration.  In between we hope to take our boat out for Happy Hour and Sunday trips to the lake.  I already know how fast the  summer days are going to go by and am already trying to figure out ways to make them last and last and last.

Easter 2013

The best part of Easter this year was the neighborhood party. Brian and I volunteered to hide eggs first thing in the morning so we left the kids at home and went down to the Merc for a quick breakfast before heading to the field to hide (literally) thousands of eggs. While we were there we were visited by the neighborhood red fox. He has an injured leg and limped around the area, coming as close as 10 feet of us and ultimately stealing a couple of the eggs we were hiding, going back up on the hill, breaking them open and eating the candy inside. Clever little guy. We went home and  brought the kids down so they could see him and also so they could  help  with the rest of the set up. They had a very important job of “Bunny Wranglers”. There were 4 bunnies set up in a hay bale arrangement and they kept trying to escape. We knew Faith would be all over that job!

In addition to the Easter Egg Hunt there was face
painting, a bounce house, craft stations, a sack race, and a tug of war. We all had a really good time hanging with friends and playing together as a family.

Easter morning brought the traditional Easter egg hunt with too much candy and the written clues in eggs leading to a fun present (Alan Family Tradition). The clues this year led them to a water mister system for the trampoline. Since they always want to pour water on the tramp in the summer, we thought a mister might be fun for them and allow them to bounce even in 90+ degree weather.  Nana gave them a trip to the movie theater to see The Croods (we were supposed to go Easter Day but Nana was sick so we postponed it for another weekend).  A trip to the “REAL” movie theater downtown is always a treat!!

It was a gorgeous weekend- 70 degrees and sunny. And, once again, I was amazed by how wonderful the first beautiful, warm weekend of spring is after a long winter. The Hefeweizen came out, lawn chairs were dusted off, and the yard work began.  The kids played outside from morning til night (when we had to drag them in to get them ready for bed). This is just a sample of things to come in the months ahead. I love it.

Leading off and playing 2nd base.....

Another baseball season is underway. Jake is playing AAA again this year, while Tanner has moved up from TBall to Pitching Machine. Faith decided mid way thru last season that she really didn't like baseball and didn't want to play again. I think she's too much of a free-spirit for the stuctured game that baseball is. 

I am also on the board of directors this year as the information officer. It has been an eye opening experience how much work goes into playing a kids game. As the information officer, I am responsible for the league website, all the schedules and scores, all the league communication and database and this year I handled our registration as we tried to re-build the process to make it easier on the parents. Needless to say this is a lot or time and work. But I am a big believer in the power of youth sports to shape character and baseball in particular that it feels good to help out by giving back. I have met a bunch of great people and made some great friends in the process of getting the season started. I am the division director for Summer Baseball as well, which is a skeleton program so it's basically just  me and I can do what I want. This year I am going to let Tanner play up and he and Jake will be on the team I coach, so that should be a lot of fun also. But in the immediate future, I am the Pitching Machine Division coach for Tanner's Yankees team. 

His team is the Yankees (at Tanner's insistance) for the third year in a row. It's a few of the same boys from last year, with a couple of additions from the Y Basketball team I coached this last season, plus a couple of new kids. We have just had practices so far and games don't start until next week. Tanner is playing catcher and loves it so far. He did take a pitch off the arm the other night and it hurt. He is number 8 and his new favorite player is Yogi Berra (also a Yankees catcher who wore #8). Proud dad aside, he's also the best player on the team by a long shot. I thought it would take him a bit to adjust to the machine, but the first time up he was driving balls back up the middle and into the outfield on the fly. He's going to have a great season, but I can already tell that this is going to be his only season in Pitching Machine. Next year he'll move up to AA kid pitch. 

Jake is in AAA again this year. At 10, you have to try out for Majors, which he did, but you have the option of requesting to stay down in AAA. I know a couple of the Majors coaches and he would have gotten drafted up if we wanted to, but that likely would have meant less playing time, against bigger pitchers and a lot of bench time, just given his age and size. By staying down in AAA, he'll play more, he'll pitch more and he'll be one of the better players in the league. The only downside to this plan is he got drafted by a team that's not very good. Our first game was the other night and we lost 8-0. But Jake got to catch, play shortstop and close the game out on the mound. He played the entire game and did really well. His team may not have such a good season, but he will I think. 

We had our opening day yesterday. As a board member I was at the field ALL DAY helping with the festivities, but I really enjoyed it. We are talking about making a bunch of changes next year and I will be one of the few returning board members, so I am trying to get some new ideas up and running. I love baseball, and I love little league. 

If you would like to see our league website and what I do, click here . You can also see the schedules and follow Jake's team in the scores and standings. Tanner is the Rookie (Pitching Machine) Yankees and Jake is the AAA Rockies. We'll get some photos posted soon. Until then, PLAY BALL!

Labor of Love

Our youngest child seems to take after her mother in terms of organization: she throws everything onto the floor, mixes it all together, and sees no reason to pick it up or organize it even if no one can step foot into her room. I grew out of it…(editors note. ummmmm...., I'm not so sure you did)... I know she will too. However, in the meantime, Brian and I figured we might be able to help her a bit by giving her a little more to work with in terms of places to put things. So we began our hunt for new furniture for her room. I use the term “new” very loosely as we were following Craigslist. Whatever we bought would be new to her, but not new per se. In any case, we found what looked like a perfect fit for her on Saturday. Unfortunately it was way out in Nampa- a good 45 minutes away- but we headed out there anyway and after viewing it, Faith fell in love with it, and we decided we’d come back the following day to buy it, take it apart, and lug it home. As you can see in the picture it is BIG. And it has MANY pieces. I actually had difficulty sleeping Saturday night worrying about if it would fit in our two cars and whether or not we’d have to head back out a third time in order to complete the mission. We discussed, briefly, whether it wouldn’t just be better to go find a similar bed at a local furniture store (and pay 3 times the cost) but decided that buying used teaches the kids so many good lessons: saving money, helping the environment, the pay off of hard work, the satisfaction in a job well done, etc… so we decided it made sense to devote what we knew would be a large part of the weekend to this project.

Anyway, Sunday morning we headed out again, in two cars. We left the kids in the Suburban with video games galore while Brian and I went inside the tiny house full of people. I’m not sure but it may have been a polygamous household- 6 children, two women, 1 man and many, many pets (2 dogs, 4 cats, 2 bunnies). The house stunk to high heaven. We proceeded to break the bed/desk/dresser/fort into about 50-60 smaller pieces, all of which were then lugged outside and divided between the two cars. They barely fit- each car was packed to the rim.  This part of the process took almost 2 hours.  For those of you keeping track, we were now at 1.5 hours driving time on Sat, 1.5 hours driving time on Sunday, and 2 hours to take bed apart and load it into the car. And the hard part was yet to come. 

Brian stopped at the nearest gas station to wash his hands in scalding hot water, then changed out of every last bit of clothing and threw them immediately into the washing machine. Cat pee. UGH!

We arrived back home at 1PM on Sunday and proceeded to pull each and every part out of the cars and lay them on the lawn for disinfecting. The kids and I wiped down every single piece, both sides, and sprayed them all with Lysol, prior to carrying them up, one by one, to Brian who attempted to put them all back together in the right order. Let me tell you… I had my doubts that it was possible. But we kept at it and put the puzzle back together one piece at a time. Mom arrived when we were about ¾ done and provided wine to keep my energy up (you can always count on Mom to bring the wine!). We ordered pizza partway through the process and although I sat down to take a break, Brian worked through dinner. Finally, at about 630 that evening we had the bed up and ready to go. 11 hours of labor. That’s how spent our Sunday.

However, it was all worth it. Faith LOVES her bed. There are nooks and crannies to store things in, a desk to do art on, a place to store her toys, and the bed is up high (which she thinks is the coolest thing ever).  As soon as it was put together all the way, she and Tanner set about “organizing” it.  They threw all her toys and stuffed animals into the fort under the bed, put special things on the shelves of the desk, filled the desk drawers with various items, decided where to store her underwear, socks, jammies, and tights, etc…. It was about the cutest thing to watch ever. Faith was clearly in charge and Tanner was clearly her “helper” and the way they worked together was amazing. Mom and I just stood back and let them have at it, listening in as Tanner asked for direction and Faith hemmed and hawed about where things should be placed. That night they both slept on it together (Jake was at a friend’s house for a sleepover).

Watching them work together for hours was the sweetest thing.  Brian and I went to bed exhausted but feeling pretty damn good about the work we had done as a family and the lessons that we hope were passed onto the kids through the effort.

10 going on 17

For the first time in a few years, Jakes birthday was going to be short this year. Normally the kids birthdays fall mid-week, so they have a friend birthday party on the weekend, then their real birthday party during the week on their actual birthdate. It has a tendency to become Mardi-Gras like in duration. But this year, Jake's birthday was on a Sunday, so it was all encompassed in one weekend of birthday-ness.

He had six friends over for a sleepover on Saturday night. Then we had our birthday dinner and birthday party as a family on Sunday. BOOM. Done. 

There are other ways it was different though. None of them as easy as scheduling. 

He's getting so old. It's become instant teenager around here, just add water. He's cross and scowling most of the time at home. You can see him with his friends and he's laughing and having a blast, but then he gets in the car and it's like a blast of cold air comes in with him. He argues, he sulks, he's sarcastic (yes I KNOW - that's my fault) and he spends a lot of time in his room (not his choice most of the time - I just banish him there). But it's more than just the attitude.

He would rather be almost anywhere than with us. He goes out to play with his friends and is just GONE for hours at a time. Up in the foothills, down at he creek, at his friends houses, anywhere but home. It used to be for his friend birthday party, even as recently as last year, we scheduled events and games and movies. This year we didn't do a thing. They just came over and went upstairs. The few times we went to look in on them we got an embarrassed stare, an eye roll and quiet derision until we closed the door and came back downstairs. 

There are glimpses that our real boy is still in there however. He has always been friends with a boy with Downs Syndrome at school. Really since right after we moved here. Anthony may have been one of his first friends in the neighborhood. Jake invited Anthony to his party this year, which thrilled Anthony and his parents. He couldn't stay for the sleepover part, but he had a good time at the party and left at 7:00 or so. Jake was so great with him (and always is) that you can't help but be proud of him. He instinctively knows how to interact with Anthony, doesn't talk down to him, makes sure he's doing okay and having a good time, and keeps him in check behavior wise. It really is amazing to watch and gives me hope that he'll come out of this phase and go back to the wonderful boy he was just yesterday it seems like. 

His world also has become very weirdly social, like teenage girl social. He gets in spats with his friends, they clique up on each other. He totally avoids someone for weeks at a time, then spends hours and days with that same person, them against the world, friends forever. He had a friend he was on the out's with until the day before the sleep over, then all of the sudden they were best buddies again and the party couldn't happen without Charley. So Marisa had to get involved and go through the mom to get things smoothed out and the last minute invite delivered.

It really has become quite surreal almost overnight, and the party was the perfect example. They came through the door, went upstairs, came down when we gave them food, went back upstairs and totally avoided us until it was time to leave. 

I guess it's just life and I was a teenager myself once upon a time. I DO remember it not happening until high school though. NOT AT 10 years old!

Happy birthday Jake. Act your damn age!

Faith Turns 6

Faith turned 6 last week. I know I say this every single year… but REALLY?? Six?? Unbelievable. She was so excited for her birthday this year- it was really cute because in the past it hasn’t been a very big deal to her but this year she was talking about it for weeks beforehand. Kind of incessantly. She basically wanted everything she saw in every store we went into and on every TV commercial she saw for the two months leading up to the big day.  She wrote out a birthday list that included who she would invite, what she wanted for cake, what she wanted as presents, what would be in goody bags, where the party would be, etc.. 

The night before her birthday I took down the blog and we read together how she was born at 9:29AM. We looked at the pictures of her little bald head with the glued on red bow. We talked about how right after the dr. took her out of my tummy I asked, “Is it really a girl??” because I still didn’t truly believe I was going to have a daughter.

When she woke up on March 6^th she was greeted with huge “Happy Birthdays” from all of us, including Grandma Mary who stayed in town to help celebrate. She was definitely the Queen for a Day. She had a chocolate donut with m and ms’s on top for breakfast and opened one of her presents from Auntie Sue so she could wear new clothes to school that day. She was very excited to bring in her birthday treat to school (chocolate cupcakes made with help from Grandma Mary) and was highly anticipating the time when she would get to stand on one of the tables in her classroom while her classmates sang “Happy Birthday” to her.  

After school Brian took her to dinner at her choice of places- Lulu’s Pizza. They were only gone for about an hour because she was just too excited to come home and open her presents. She got several stuffed animals (a Mama Tiger and a Baby Tiger), some clothes, a Lego Friends Pet Salon from her brothers, and a little pony that walks when you pet its back. She was thrilled with all of her presents. We followed that with cupcakes and ice cream. I tucked my baby in that night and besides being so grateful to have her in my life, I felt very nostalgic for the days of her babyhood.

Saturday was her birthday party with her friends from school. She chose to have the party at the place that she does her gymnastics. The six girls played for an hour on the equipment then had cake (animal theme, of course)and ice cream and opened presents. Grandpa Phil and Joan were in town for the weekend so they got to participate in the fun. 

All in all, I think her 6th birthday was a huge success and I can go back to devising a way to keep her this age forever. 

Last Day

I think we're kind of ready to be home. We are both a little done with the resort, both a little done with the food, and both a little done with the weather. We are having a nice time together and the sounds of the waves as a backdrop to everything is just great, but we miss the kids and are ready to be back home.

Today it rained again. Marisa handled it much better than I thought she would, I was concerned upon waking and hearing the rain falling that I was going to have to play "perspective goalie" all day today. But she got up and went for a walk on the beach after breakfast while I went and worked out and sat in the sauna for awhile. After that we met up for a chilly, but fun, swim. We read for a little bit down by the beach and just had a very low-key morning.

She wanted to go out to lunch instead of eating at the resort, so we walked down to the Margaritaville Restaurant and had lunch and walked back in the rain. We got ice cream in the lobby and then came back up to the room for a nap. Now I am typing this while she is down working out. I think a night in is on the agenda, with room service dinner and a movie. We'll make time for one last walk on the beach tonight before it gets dark.

We've had a great time, and a great break, but can't wait to come back home and see everyone.

Like They Say in Baseball...

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes it rains. Today it rained. All day. After such a beautiful warm Mexican day yesterday it is a little disappointing. Today was start to finish dreary, wet, and cold.  We got all of our souvenir shopping done, though, and took a long nap in our room. I still had the obligatory pina colada- I just had to drink it inside instead of at the pool or beach. I'm trying not to let the weather bug me too much and just appreciate the fact that we are here. 

The picture is me with the Senor Frog's frog here at the resort. Coco Bongo is a nightclub here that is really, really popular. It is advertised everywhere you go. Our resort arranges nightly trips there that leave at 10PM. Ha Ha. We are so old- neither of us can even imagine going out to a nightclub and starting our night at 10 O'Clock. Not at all like the "olden days" of single trips to Club Med! Wow how things change. 

Here's hoping for some sunshine tomorrow. Kiddos- since I know you are going to read this tonight, please do a little "sun dance" for us, OK? You can make it up as you go along... interpretative dance, a nice little chant... that should do the trick. 

Faith- I promised you I'd send you the picture of the towel elephant so here it is. Enjoy!

We miss you guys and love you more than you know. 

Meircoles (Wednesday)

So I have applied all of the quantum physics that I have learned from watching "The Big Bang Theory" and was able to explain to Marisa this afternoon, why the days seem so long here (even though it gets dark at 6:00 PM). We have all day, the same 24 hours that we have at home, but we have them all to ourselves. No, "Tanner is being mean to me!", "I'm hungry", making lunches, doing homework etc. Not that we don't love doing those things for the kids, you just don't know how much of your time they take up until you don't have to do them for awhile.

We woke up, and have been, at 6:00 am or so, which is just fine with me because I'm waking up when my body wants me to, not to an alarm, or to noise from upstairs, or to the dog. Just me saying, "I've had enough sleep, I'm well rested, I'm good, let's go!" It was gorgeous weather today, not as windy as it has been, no rain and warm. We started our day down at the "party pool" as they have chairs that face the Gulf and the beach. The Gulf was warm enough to swim in today and we dove in before 7:00 am and had a great morning swim before breakfast. After breakfast, it was back to the pool and our books for a bit.

At 10:00 we went down to the spa for our massages. We got massages in the couples room so we were both in the same room which was nice. The massage was awesome (full disclosure it was purchased on Living Social) and about put me 1/2 to sleep while I laid there. After massages it was back to the room for a shower and then we decided to go our separate ways for a bit. Marisa has a bit of "I am woman hear me roar!" in her that shows up every once in a while, today she needed to show Mexico that she could wander around on her own, undaunted. Not being able to keep up with that, and knowing that discretion states that I shouldn't be around when that particular part of her personality is in charge (just cause it does things that don't make sense to me, and I'm not allowed to ask why...", I went for a run on the beach. 

We met up on the beach about a mile from the resort and walked back together, hand in hand in the waves. The water was so great that as soon as we got back we changed and went back down to the beach to swim in the Gulf again. We had some drinks (Marisa more than me, she's still lit as I type), got some pizza, swam and cooled off. 

So now it was all of 1:00. We got some lunch (the pizza was technically a snack) and headed back up to the room for siesta time. We napped for a couple of hours, I don't think anyone needs details on how AWESOME that is. After nap, back down to the other pool for swimming and more boat drinks for someone....then back to the room to shower, write this blog post and get ready for dinner. I'd like to say we're going to go out and hit the disco or whatever, but we'll likely be in bed by nine. Again, just me saying, "enough for today, more tomorrow, let's hit the sheets." Again, our time, our rules, our needs. Awesome.


Tanner asked where exactly we were as he would like to come to Mexico so he can eat bean and cheese burritos for every meal. So the map is for him and the kids. The other pictures don't really need any explanation.

Tuesday

Great day. I can't say we did much- I am pretty sure we took 3 naps. We woke up early- around 6- so the day was relaxed and felt long in the best possible way.  We didn't leave the resort. We sat by both pools, walked on the beach a little, read, ate, worked out, drank tropical drinks.....did I mention that we napped?

Quote that best sums up the day: (Marisa- after getting up out of a hammock and starting to walk into the buffet for lunch):  "Honey, did I wear shoes?".  If that doesn't say "resort living" I'm not sure what does. 

One of the reasons for our multiple naps was the weather. It was beautiful all morning but after lunch- right around 1:00- it started pouring. It rained cats and dogs for about 15 minutes, then rained on and off for the next 2 hours. A perfect afternoon to read in bed overlooking the turquoise blue ocean, nodding off now and then, and finally turning to Brian to say, "Oh my god, is it REALLY 3:45??". 

There are TONS of shells here. Huge ones. They are gorgeous and Brian and I keep wanting to pick them up and bring them home to you guys but we know we probably couldn't get them through customs and neither of us is willing to risk Mexican jail. Sorry, guys. I'll try to get a picture of some of them tomorrow.

Faith- the picture of the kitty cat is for you. When we returned from lunch we found this little towel creation waiting for us on our bed. I instantly thought of you and knew if you'd been here you would have loved it.

Jake- the picture I took for you is of parasailing. There were lots of people out on the water today riding jet skis and parasailing.  Someday we will do that together. 

Tanner- you got the picture of the pelican  yesterday. I'll be on the lookout for a good picture for you tomorrow. On a side note, another indication that I am losing brain cells while I am here in Mexico is that I had to ask Brian what the name of that bird is that dives into the water and has a big beak). 

Si, excepto ella no es facil

Okay so this is a shot of our room in Cancun. Pretty great, right? You sir, would be wrong about that. Because of the above statement. Love her as I do, my wife is not easy, especially about bargains and getting what she paid for.

The room in question, while having an ocean view, had two double beds as opposed to the king bed that she wanted. I was told this was NOT romantic and would tarnish the memories of the vacation…We were told to come back to the front desk the morning to see about possibly switching rooms to get a king bed. We were there bright and early, unfortunately, the front desk operates on resort time (which we kind of expected). So we went and had a great breakfast, wandered around the resort for awhile and went back at 10:00 am.

They showed us a room with a king bed in our same building, with no view. Again, not acceptable. This is when I explained to the bellhop that my wife, while lovely and kind, wants what she wants and not much will dissuade her (using the above Spanish). So, back to the front desk we went. We were told this was the last available room. We then said the magic word, “upgrade” all of the sudden, the red sea parted and there were more rooms available, just not right then.  We had to come back at two when the rooms were clean. So we walked down to the shops and wandered around the hotel zone a little bit.

Back at 2:00 on the dot, we met with our new best friend at the front desk. She had a bellhop take us to a REALLY nice room with a king bed, ocean view, Jacuzzi tub, shower spa, free wi-fi and unlimited access to the gym (hey, you vacation your way, I vacation mine). The free gym swung if for me and we upgraded. We are both much happier.

If you are thinking the whole thing sounds a little orchestrated and planned, yeah you’re probably right. I’m fine going thru the rest of the vacation with “sucker” tattooed across my forehead. My wife is happy. As I also told the bellhop (we were buds by now), there is a saying in the US, “Happy wife, happy life”. Mine is, on both counts.

PS. Hey Tanner - Look at this cool pelican!

Kid Update

Faith started gymnastics class a month ago and is really enjoying it. She was very timid at first and I could tell how nervous she was to be on the bars or beam (or as she calls it, "the bean").  The first few lessons she was happy to do the class in her shorts and tshirt but last week she decided she really, really wanted a leotard and matching hair scrunchie. She came home and tried them on immediately and modeled them for her brothers and daddy. Today  I knew there was going to be trouble at class as her regular teacher wasn't there and the sub was a "boy teacher". Yep... the waterworks began. She has always been afraid of male teachers, from the time she was a two year old in her first swimming class. The other teacher was a woman so she got put in that group and luckily avoided the dreaded man teacher! Not sure where that phobia came from as she is surrounded by boys at home!

Faith is doing amazingly well in Kindergarten. She reads, reads, reads. She loves it and she is good at it. It keeps her entertained for long stretches, along with her art work and craft stuff. She will head up to the bonus room and come down an hour later with some creation. Last week it was a barn built of popsicle sticks filled with puff balls to which she had glued eyes and a beak. It was her "chicken coop". She named all of the chickens and kept it beside her bed for several days. She brought it in for "V" day at school and when I asked her what about it started with "V" she replied, "It's my VERY special chickens".  Smart cookie, that one.  She loves school and has her group of best friends there that she plays with and constantly wants to invite over to play. She has started complaining that she is tired of playing with "the boys" at home and recently started angling for a sister. Ummm... hate to tell her but there is no way on god's green earth that is happening! Luckily she still plays really well with Tanner and Jake.

Tanner recently lost a bottom tooth and two days later had one of his top teeth knocked loose during rough play on the trampoline. He was so upset because he really thought it was his permanent tooth that got knocked loose and he was just sobbing. It wasn't ready to be loose so there was lots of blood and drama and it really hurt so he got lots of TLC from Nana and me, and also from Jake and Faith who brought him his Giants blanket, his teddy bear, and a little packet of candy they put together. Those three really do look out for each other and take care of each other. It's so sweet to watch. The tooth in question hung in there for about 24 hours at which point I couldn't stand to look at it any more, hanging in his mouth at an awkward angle, so I convinced him to let me pull it out. Brian is really squeamish about teeth and wouldn't even look Tanner in the eye so the duty fell to me. Ick. Really gross. But it came out pretty easily. He left it for the Tooth Fairy and decided two days later when the Tooth Fairy STILL hadn't shown up (BAD MOMMY!) that she must be really busy or maybe she didn't believe that he really lost another tooth so quickly after the other one fell out. I told him that usually the Tooth Fairy pays an extra dollar for each day she is delayed, so he ended up getting three bucks from her in the end.

Tanner also loves school and is a great reader. He goes to bed half an hour before Jake and often uses that time to read his books in bed. He is getting so independent. He has his best friends still and they all hang out together both at school and at each others houses. He was invited to his first sleepover birthday party next weekend and even though he is dying to go and says he won't be nervous to sleep there, it makes me a little sad to know that he is that independent already. I know, I know. He is seven years old. But still..

Talk about growing up... then there's Jake. He turns ten next month. Double digits. Over half of his years at home are already gone. Scary. He loves fourth grade and his teacher, Mr. Borjian. He has finally expanded his reading horizons past sports books and just finished the City of Ember series. He is responsible about school work and homework, but I wouldn't say he likes it. He's got a good group of buddies, too, and despite more "friendship drama" than I'd like, he is happy. I thought only girls had friendship drama... apparently I was wrong. He still really likes choir and now says that when he grows up he wants to be a musician instead of a pro athlete. Hmmmm. Maybe a backup plan would be good on either front.

He's had a lull in his sports schedule lately and it has been really nice and relaxing not having practices during the week. It's been two months, actually, with only a baseball camp here and there and Faith's gymnastics. That will all change in less than a month when Little League starts. Brian is coaching Tanner's machine pitch team and Jake will do AAA again, hoping to get more experience before doing Majors next year. Brian is coaching Summer League this year and since he is now on the board for the North Boise Little League, he is going to allow Tanner to play on the same team as Jake, even though he is a few months shy of the cutoff age. All the boys are excited about that one! I have to admit I am also looking forward to getting back into sports- especially baseball.

Brian and I head to Mexico tomorrow morning at 5AM- I'm not sure how we will manage it in the budget but a trip away each year definitely needs to be a priority. We've been counting the days and are now down to hours. We woke up to snow this morning and a low of 6 degrees is expected Tuesday so we are so excited to be heading to a warm climate.  Break out the bikinis and shorts. We are staying at an all inclusive resort in Cancun so I'm hoping the biggest decision I have to make each day is whether or not I should have that second drink and if I should read or sleep by the ocean. Mary is staying with the kids and Mom is helping with entertainment, transportation, food, etc... I can't thank them enough. I told Brian that the thing I am looking forward to most is not having to do any sort of food prep for an entire week. That, to me, is HEAVEN. Brian, on the other hand, is most excited about not having to tell anyone to stop touching anyone else.

Winter's Not Done With Us Yet

Woke up to this.

More Things I Don't Want to Forget

Sunday mid morning is typically when I go grocery shopping. Sometimes it's just me, sometimes one or more of the kids come along. It just depends on what's going on at home and what Brian is up to and whether or not football is on. I always stop at Starbucks on my way to the store to get myself a mocha to drink while perusing the aisles at Fred Meyer or Walmart or WinCo. Last Sunday Jake decided to come with me and Tanner and Faith decided to stay home. I love when only one of them comes because it is great one-on-one time (and that is somewhat of a luxury around here!). As we sat down in the car I noticed that Jake tucked something in his pocket. I asked him what it was and he said it was nothing, not to worry about it. I cranked up the music and we headed out.

First stop was, of course, Starbucks. I ordered my drink and took out my iPhone Starbucks app to pay. But before she could scan the barcode on my phone Jake whipped out a $20.00 bill from his pocket (the mysterious slip of paper from the car) and said, "This one's on me!". The barista and I were both kind of shocked, touched, and laughing. He said he'd been planning it for awhile and wanted to treat me to coffee with his own money.  I think I had a smile a mile wide the rest of the day.

Later that day I was coloring with Faith when out of the blue she asked me,"Mom, how do you learn how to do all the things that you do?". I wasn't sure what she was talking about so I said, "You mean like coloring?" and she said, "No. Like how do you learn to be a good mommy?".  I told her that it is a very hard job but I learned from my mom and I learn as I go along and I make lots of mistakes. She was quiet for a few minutes and then said, "How many mistakes do you think you've made, Mom?".  I hugged her and said, "More than I could count. Thousands!". She assured me I am still the best mom ever.

Speaking of one-on-one time... Jake was at a sleepover party last weekend so Brian and Tanner got to have some male bonding time during the NFL Playoffs. The two of them turned on the afternoon game upstairs on the big screen, folded out the futon so they could stretch out, and enjoyed the game together. They were so cute sitting up there together, come dinnertime I couldn't resist making them dinner and delivering it to them to eat in the Bonus Room. This is usually a "no eating zone" so Tanner was thrilled to get his grilled cheese, chips, and carrots delivered to him on the futon. It was kind of sexist, but Faith and I stayed downstairs and watched some of Top Chef while we let the boys do their own thing.  Good one on one time for everyone this week!

Ski Night

As a follow-up to Marisa's previous post about the snow, we went up skiing for the first time in a couple of years over the weekend. 

We have had more snow so far this winter than we have had for the last two winters combined, plus it's staying cold enough for the snow to stay on the ground (it's 10 degrees out while typing this). Snow on the ground = sledding, sledding (for boys anyway) = desire for bigger hills to go down. The school organizes family ski nights at Bogus Basin and the first one of this year was this past Saturday night. It really is a great activity. As the Resort winds down for the day, you can go up, get discounted lessons and lift tickets and ski under the lights.

I'm not a HUGE fan of the road up there, it's windy and steep (duh) with no guardrails and makes me a little tense during the day, so driving up and back down in the dark was not something I was looking forward to, but the road conditions and the weather were perfect on Saturday, so up we went. 

This is the 1st year that Tanner was eligible to take snow board lessons and he was all fired up. Once we got their rental boots, boards etc., we headed out to meet their instructors. For whatever reason, most kids here ski, not snowboard. That combined with the fact that it was at night, meant that Tanner and Jake each had an hour and a half private snowboard lesson, equipment rental and lift ticket for $25.00, which was awesome. 

I wasn't sure how Tanner was going to do being dropped off in the freezing cold, but he was good to go. Jake had taken snowboard lessons before and was familiar with the process. Marisa, Faith and I went into the lodge to get out of the cold (it was five degrees out) and so I could try to watch the end of the Broncos game. There were a ton of parents from school in there and we found some friends to sit and chat with while the boys got their X-Games on. They both did really well.

At one point Marisa saw Tanner out the window and it looked like he and his teacher were heading back in. Fearing the worst, I bundled up and headed out to meet them. Tanner saw me trudging across the snow and raised his arms like, "what?". When I got out to them, he said, "What are you doing here?". I asked if he was okay and if they were done and he said, "I'm fine, we're going back up.", which loosely translated, came across as, "Get out of here Dad. You're embarrasing me.". So I turned around and headed back in to finish my burger and wait them out. 

Once lessons were done, we collected the boys and brought them inside for snacks. After about a 20 minute rest, they were raring to go back out. They left us in the lodge and went back out and boarded together for another forty minutes or so. I got a sense of foreshadowing for what trips up the mountain will be like as the boys get older. 

Once we had decided that they had enough, we returned the rental gear, loaded up the car and headed down the mountain. Everyone had their ipods on (Mom and Dad included) and it was a quiet and uneventful drive back home. We just pulled the Suburban into the garage, left the unpacking for the morning and got everyone (Mom and Dad included) off to bed.

There is another Ski Night scheduled in the next couple of weeks and I'm sure we'll be headed back up for some more fun on the slopes.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

We got a pretty decent snowfall right after Christmas- before New Years- and it feels like it hasn't stopped since! I am pretty sure we have more snow right now than we did in the last 3 years combined. I LOVE it!! Today is an official Snow Day in the Boise School District, so the kids are home. They have built a snowman, built a snow fort, practiced pitching with snowballs, tried sledding and snowboarding across the street, and acted out The Lion King while drinking hot cocoa. Now they are playing Wii. And it is still coming down! Brian is on round 2 of shoveling the driveway- and even so, I think he is enjoying the weather as much as the kids and I are. We had several days that started at 4 degrees- and by "started" I mean it was still 4 degrees when we dropped the kids off at school. That is quite unusual here... but you know that global warming is just some liberal hippie thing that was made up to encourage car companies to create the Leaf, right?

The New Year started off great with our first of what I am sure will be MANY "date nights" at Sheila and Wayne's new house. They were in town from Dec 26- Jan 6 and we decided we could leave the kids at home with Jake in charge (and a cell phone) and walk the two doors down to spend an evening with our friends. We fed them first, stuck a movie in the DVD player, and headed out. How great was it to get a date night with best friends AND not have to pay for and arrange a babysitter???!!! We brought the "Red Neck Alcohol Tub", they provided the food, and we hung out for over two hours. It was such a success that we repeated the idea a week later- this time with them providing the wine while we provided the snacks. HEAVEN. 

A Lazy Mom's Christmas Blog

Top 10 Christmas Season Memories (in no particular order):

1. Mary was in town for the week leading up to Christmas. We did our fair share of Christmas shopping and Starbucks trips together and she did more than her fair share of baking with the kids, making Chex mix and "Grandma Mary Spaghetti Sauce", and playing card games.

2. We took the kids to Big Lots on Christmas Eve and they each used their own money to buy some toys for Toys for Tots. I was really proud of them all for their generosity. We tried to lead by example by buying things with our own money and then giving them the option to use their own money to buy additional toys. Each of them bought at least one item and stood in line on their own, using their ATM card to buy the gifts. We then drove to the fire station and they proudly put their goodies into the box.

3. The advent calendar continued to be a big hit each morning. I'm pretty sure that is the best $5.00 I ever spent at a garage sale! Faith's favorite treat was the Sixlets.

4. We watched way too many holiday movies. This year we introduced the kids to Elf and The Santa Clause. We also watched School of Rock (timed perfectly to get them in the right frame of mind for their presents from Santa Claus).  Next year it will be time for A Christmas Story and Christmas Vacation. 

5. We've never been fans of a fancy dinner on Christmas Eve. Years past have seen everything from FFY to take out Chinese to fish and chips at the local pub (that was the year I was pregnant with Jake). This year Nana came over and we did a "make your own pizza night". I bought dough and sauce from a local pizza place and Nana demonstrated the fine art of pizza dough throwing.

6. We followed the pizza making with the annual opening of Christmas Eve jammies and Christmas Eve game. This year it was MouseTrap- a great game from my childhood. The kids loved it and it kept us all entertained. Then, right before bed, we all watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Shrek the Halls. The Kids all slept in the bonus room together on blow up mattresses. Amazingly they were all asleep by 930 PM.

7. Brian and I were up first on Christmas morning. We got breakfast started, made the coffee and energy drink (for Brian) then the kids got up around 645 when Nana arrived. They were very excited to see the gifts from Santa: the makings of a band including an electric guitar and amp, a keyboard, and an electric drum set. Yes, we are crazy. They have been making music ever since and are getting their first lesson on the guitar later this morning from a friend of ours in the neighborhood. Now our bonus room (already a truly multifunctional space) includes the title of "Music Room".

8. The only thing Faith truly wanted for Christmas was a stuffed reindeer from Build a Bear. She didn't waver from the time she saw it in the mall in November until Christmas morning. She was pretty excited to see Clarice waiting for her by the fireplace. The doll was actually from Nana but we left it out from Santa because it was the only thing she had actually asked for from him. She carries it everywhere.

9. The boys favorite gifts were from their Grandmas: Mary got them Madden 13 for the Wii and Nana got them each a pair of Reebok Reezig shoes in Boise State colors. They were ecstatic. Seriously. I thought Jake might cry he was so happy. He just kept hugging Nana and thanking her over and over again. I think the reaction alone made Nana's day.

10. We didn't get a white Christmas, but we did get snow the day after and several days following. We still have several inches on the ground with more falling as I type. The low was 15 degrees last night so it's chilly but it has been sunny during the day and really beautiful.