May

To the girls utter joy, the dandelions have started to bloom.  The other day the girls gathered a whole bouquet of dandelion puffs, climbed into the car and blew!  They were thrilled with the ensuing floating seed wonderland for about 2 minutes until allergies started triggering.  

Last week was Heidi's 4 year checkup.  It was one of our non rainy sunny days and so we enjoyed the drive there.  We picked a pediatrician who lives a good 15 minutes out of the city and I love the drive and the country feel of it.  On the way there was a detour and we attempted the steepest road I've ever seen!  The girls were panicked and I kept telling myself that if the paving truck was able to make it, then I could make it.  After the check up and shots we visited a park.

Squaw Valley Park is one of our favorites, and the weather was perfect for a park day.

The girls ran around making friends, playing with dogs and digging in the volleyball court while i pushed Quinn in the swing and fed her snacks.  We met up with some friends and then it became an elaborate game of pretend and saving princes and living in underwater castles.

I had promised the girls a trip to the zoo to see their pets on Wednesday, and then it rained and rained and rained.  The girls gathered their rain boots and stomped through the house knocking loose the mud caked on from the last puddle jumping adventure.  Quinn followed them around cleaning up after them and eating up the bits of dirt.

The rain let up after the morning and so we went anyway.

I wish I would have taken a picture with this sign each time we came.  They were doing landscaping and the whole place looked so different!

Quinn was a trooper as always.   She enjoys a good stroller ride.

The Mother and baby tiger were out and kept playing in way that made it seem like they were fighting. And I kept missing the picture.

Heidi got a camera for her birthday, just like Alex's, and has been taking pictures of everything.  Watching them take pictures of the animals was a pretty happy moment for me.

They rushed past the tigers after only a few minutes  (I could have watched all day) to see what was going on with the flamingos!

They were squawking up a storm and so we stood and watched for 20 minutes.

These 5 kept fighting each other for that piece of prime real estate.

Mom and baby Rhino were out together, this was also very exciting for me.

The girls were more interested in the termite hill.  I got to watch the Rhino's, they climbed the rocks, everyone won.

We made some nature notebooks a few weeks ago and put together an adventure backpack with some identification books the girls got for their birthdays, bug nets, specimen jars etc.  Alex was adamant about getting a picture of this bug so we could identify it later.  Looks like I need a macro lens. (I'm pretty sure this is a soldier beetle, a good guy like ladybugs.)

Heidi wanted to measure up to the elephant.

The girls kept switching in between sandals and rain boots as they changed from running to puddle stomping.

These girls are pretty good friends.  When they are feeling sweet they will take care of each other, and when they are ornery they torment each other.  I'm glad they have one another though because no matter where we go they will always have a friend.

The Zoo adventure they were on this day was called -The Mystery of the missing Polar Bear!  They were full into it for a good hour.  Then we found the polar bear and needed another adventure.  We decided to follow clues to find the minisub (car).

These were their siblings who were frozen.  We had a moment of princess play and there was of course some "let it go" singing while they tried to free the poor captives.

The baby sealion will chase a pinecone if it is rolled back and forth on the cement bench in front of the underwater window.  When we go we like show everyone the trick and see their eyes light up.  Quinn thought it was hilarious!

We ended the day with a visit to see Heidi's pet camel.

Heidi's 4th birthday

Heidi had been waiting for her birthday since a few weeks before Alex's birthday came.  She'd been telling us for months that she wanted a camera, a jellyfish and a bejewler.  When packages would arrive at the house, each time she would say "It's probably my camera."  So Tyler forfeited his point and shoot, we purchased some more sugru and made Heidi a drop proof camera for her birthday.

Unfortunatly the morning of her birthday she woke up hysterical about her feet hurting.  I was getting pretty worried until Alex brought her breakfast in bed which calmed her right down.  The birthday goblins were extra tricky and hid clues she had to follow to find all her presents.  She got what she wanted plus another Boxcar Children Cd and a birthday dress.

Alex had soccer, so we tied a balloon to Heidi's bike to make it a festive outing, and followed another clue to get us to the park.  Thursday Heidi and Alex had been rough housing and Heidi got a rug burn on her nose.  It didn't even hurt her at first but I knew it was going to scab up- because we are having family pictures professionally taken in a week.

She blew bubbles, played on the playground, followed dogs around, played catch with dad, wandered through the bush, ate snacks and kicked the ball while we waited for Alex.  It was a windy, overcast day most of the time, but so much nicer than the week of rain previously.

The birthday goblins had left a picnic lunch for us all to enjoy after soccer, and on the walk home it was so wonderful and carefree that things like final tests, and packing slipped my mind.

Heidi had requested a friend party instead of a family party and Alex's first and only friend party was when she was 4, so we were expecting kids that afternoon.

Heidi had also requested a little mermaid cake with a rather detailed description of how she wanted Ariel to be and where Eric was to be placed.  After some long hard thinking I convinced her that this was the only way I could make an Ariel cake.  She loved it much to my relief.

When the friends arrived we played ring around the rosies, duck duck goose, pin the tail on the donkey, pictionary and about 10 other games I made up on the spot.  Then we opened gifts and had cake, and still had an hour to kill!

This was most of the group- 7 little girls and a boy ranging from 2 years old to 6.  It was a bit chaotic.

It reminded me of that Berenstein Bears book about Sister's birthday- where she is reduced to tears.

Heidi spent the last hour of her birthday upstairs playing alone with Daddy, while Alex entertained her guests.  The plan was to let them run wild outside, but it rained.  I decided 6 guests plus 3 of my own is too many kids for an indoor party!  We ended the day with Daddy and Heidi taking an outing to Home Depot to open all the refrigerators and sit in all the lawn chairs.  She got Cheetos and when they returned home she declared it was the best part of her whole birthday.  I'm going to remember that for next year.

So happy birthday Heidi bug.  We all love you so much.  You are so much fun and so sweet, I hope you had a wonderful day!

Pittsburgh Easter

The weather changed so we could enjoy our Easter weekend and then the April showers decided they had better start up so we could have those May flowers.  

The girls are at the age where the anticipation for an event, and helping prepare for an event is sometimes more fun than the event itself.  The saturday before Easter the girls filled up the eggs with jelly beans and peanut butter cups so they could have the long awaited egg hunt!

Their adopted brother Payson was hanging out in the backyard so we invited him to join us and I think Alex had the most fun helping him find eggs.

The next few hours were spent hiding eggs over and over again, and then filling them with dirt.

Easter Sunday was a bust.  The holiday ham was accidentally left out (hidden by kids bringing in groceries, and found hours later) and so we resorted to whatever was in the freezer.  I think it was super thick steaks that took a LOT longer to cook than we expected, so dinner was green beans and burnt rolls with meat for desert.  The minced garlic was dropped and shattered, I'm pretty sure there was some squabbling and tempers thrown around because I remember a general feeling of frustration and wishing for family.  I still smell garlic in my kitchen 2 weeks later, apparently there is a need for some deep cleaning.

Little Payson got a baseball bat and his dad has been teaching him to hit.  He is really good, so I figured I could teach my much older kids to play baseball.  One day when we discovered Heidi's bike tire was flat, we went to Rite-aid and bought a bat and ball to take to the park.  They got the concept, and then saw butterflies and ran off to chase them for an hour.

It was a great day, all the random neighbors were out with their kids or dogs or both, and we were all so happy to feel the sun and see each other again.

Quinn even got to sport her new sandals, not that she needs them, stubborn girl still refuses to walk!

A few days ago I went to the kitchen at night and when I passed the microwave a giant house centipede fell off the counter next to me.  I about died.  I screamed these horrified, pathetic, dying gerbil screams that had Tyler thinking Quinn was suffocating in her room.  I decided that house centipedes are worse than spiders.  They are bigger and they are faster and there are SO many hairy legs!  I thought about that while I was typing because I could hear a stink bug flying around the upstairs while I was loading pictures.  They are so big and noisey!  I hate them!  We found out as soccer practice that there are a lot of ticks in our neighborhood and a few of the neighborhood kids have even gotten lyme disease!  Pretty much in the last 3 days I've decided I'm done with rainy, weird buggy Pittsburgh, and ready to do summer out west!
   Tyler still has his kidney stones, 2 weeks later, and Alex finished school!  We pushed hard the last couple days and are very proud to say that she finished Kindergarten!  She wants to start "Mommy homeschool" right away, but I think I need a breather and a few minutes to think about packing for the summer.  Tyler takes his tests for this unit over the next 3 days and we can finally breath easy and know that we made it half way!  We survived the hard part!
    I've had enough going on between homeschool, Tyler's school, sickness etc, plus enough excitement coming to plan for that I haven't thought to much about friends moving away.  It's just crazy to have a mass exodus from the ward and neighborhood, taking away some of the people I've come to love and count on the most.  It's hard in general to find friends who have kids that your kids like, or spouses that you and your spouse like.  We were so lucky to have next door neighbors that fulfilled all of these requirements.  So Emily and Jess, if you are by some chance reading this- I'm going to miss you guys like crazy.  You made the move here so much easier and I hope and pray that there is someone waiting for you in our new town that will do the same.  You guys have special places in my heart, and we will always remember the fun times we had in the most magnificent Pittsburgh backyard ever!

Spring has ARRIVED!

The weather has finally taken a turn and it could not have come at a better time!  Tyler is down to his last term and this one is only 3 weeks.  The sunshine has provided what I need to survive.

My good friend had her 3rd baby a couple weeks ago, a few weeks early and so I've been trying to help out as much as I can until her Mom gets into town.  Our kids are best friends so it's been fun and easy to take them for a day here and an afternoon there.  Last week the weather was wonderful so we ventured to the zoo!

Our neighbor was going that same day and we met up so all the little girls could play.........

6 kids under the age of 6 running around PLUS 2 in the strollers.  8 little girls, it was fun and pretty crazy.  I don't think I got to look at a single animal because I was constantly counting heads and doling snacks, and of course chatting up my friend.

With home school and colder weather the past 6 months, the girls and I had gotten used to the zoo belonging to us. We rarely had to share exhibits with people and I could let the kids run far and wide because there were no crowds. No longer it seems. I'm glad for the warmth, but I sort of miss having our private Zoo.

Our friends left when we reached kid kingdom and so I sat and "relaxed" for an hour while they lost themselves in the naked mole rat tunnels.  I say "relaxed" because I had forgotten what life is like with a 2 year old and while I could trust the older 3 to stick together and stick around, I didn't trust my little mellow friend not to wander.  It made me realize I have precious little time to enjoy Quinn stroller bound- she shows all the signs of being a runner.

When we were leaving the bathroom (I had to change a diaper and out of necessity left Quinn to be watched by the 3 bigs) an older gentleman stopped me and asked if all 5 were mine.  I laughed and said no, I had brought my friends kids to join us.  He clarified "But it's just you here, with all 5 of them? Wow, you are one brave woman!"  It made me proud, especially because it wasn't really that big of a deal at all, I was completely in my comfort zone.  A year ago I wouldn't have dreamed of braving the Pittsburgh Zoo alone with my own 3 kids, not to mention 2 extra!  I think I'm finally starting to get comfortable here.

We are finishing up school which everyone is glad for.  While I tell people we are homeschooling, we are technically 'cyber schooling'.  This means we do the public school curriculum, log attendance hours every day and have to submit assignments, do testing 5 times a year (yes 5, for a kindergartner!) Alex has to accumulate 900 hours of school time just like public school kids etc, etc. 

We got this stroller for free!  I can't decide if I love it because it gives big kids the option of standing, or siting, or if I hate it because then my 4 and 6 year old think that they no longer need to walk. 

Quinn got her MMR and 8 days later developed fever and rash.  She is pretty good at fevers and cooked one up to 105.6!  Tyler was about to rush her into the hospital but we were able to bring it down.  Of course that same weekend she popped 2 teeth through.  Then she got an angry disgruntled bug and life was pretty miserable for a few days.  At one point I gave her to Alex and declared "She is yours, you are the Mom now.  Make her happy."  So Alex took her to the kitchen, got a banana and did just that.

Back to homeschooling... because of the freedom in schedule that we have with cyber school, we have been able to get ahead by doing extra work during the cold months.  Because of this we are about 2 weeks from finishing, a little over a month early!  There is a pride that comes from finishing a textbook- something I don't remember ever doing my entire public school career.  We have already finished Math, History, Art and Language Arts.  It was a bit hard in the winter, but Alex loves only needing to do Phonics, handwriting and science before she can run outside with Heidi and play the rest of the day.
    We have decided to home school again next year (not cyber school.)  I don't know if I would have been brave enough to take this step without trying a year of cyber school first.  Being a second grade teacher for minute is also helping my confidence quite a bit.  I'm excited for out new home school because I've been able to hand pick our curriculum and choose the ones I like!  I hated the math program from the public school and was excited to be able to choose Saxon, the curriculum that I taught with as a second grade teacher at a private school.  We found a fun 12 month Magic School Bus Science curriculum that came loaded with hands on projects and supplies.  What I'm most excited about though will be the Language arts.  We are going a bit "Charlotte Mason" with these subjects, and instead of having a separate lesson for phonics and handwriting and spelling and vocabulary etc, they will all be combined and come from "living books."  That was the biggest headache with our cyber school experience, there were 4 different lessons and books for subjects that could easily have been united to provide a deeper and more enjoyable experience.  Let me tell you, having 9 separate lessons to teach a day was exhausting.  I felt like we had to jump through a LOT of hoops because no one really trusted that our kids could possibly actually be learning things at home.  We are also going to try a year round approach and a 6 week schedule.  This is all stuff no one probably cares about but myself, but now it's in writing and I can come back and see how our home school progressed in 10 years.  5 weeks of teaching, one week off.  I'm sure this summer things will be different as we move around, but this is the basic hope.
     A few weeks ago the lack of sun was making me crazy.  So I packed up all the toys and arranged the basement into a "toy store."  Now the kids get to take a basket down and shop for the toys they want that day, when they are done they load up the basket and put the toys away.  After about a month of this method I do have to report that it was working marvelously!  They hardly play with most of those toys, and are so much more content.  Plus there is a lot less yelling and forced cleaning!  We are spring cleaning and trying to simplify which has made for a happier home. 
   Then there was the box.  It helped us get through 2 months of cold, and after we hit 50 pictures I gave the kids and myself a break and we sort of stalled out and stopped.  We have about 20 more ideas, but with the nice weather we just want to be outside.  I'll just save them for next winter I suppose.
     Let's see, Alex has been taking piano and is actually quite good at it.  She has girl scouts as well, and got to go on a hike with her troop, Heidi and Daddy last month.  We are in a home school co-op called PALS that I am just in love with.  People from the community, and parents, sign up to teach a class and then homeschoolers sign up for the classes they want to attend.  It's a 10 week program, once a week for a full day at an old Catholic school building.  Alex's Ancient Rome class got canceled so she is just in sewing and fiber crafts now.   She loves it. Heidi has a preschool class and Quinn and I hang out in the play room with the other Mom's and swap home school tips all afternoon.  It's wonderful and I'd love to organize one myself someday.  Once Quinn gets a bit older I can't think of anything more fun than teaching in a situation like this and being able to home school as well.  Soccer just started up and we found a wonderful church program to join, 10 weeks for $20 and they get shirts, snacks every week and pictures!  I'm not yet convinced that Alex is going to be my sporty child, but watching Heidi entranced by the baseball practice- I'm thinking the second she is old enough to join a team she is going to be in heaven.
      Wow, super long post, but that's what happened when you don't post for a month.
So here is our Summer schedule.  We will be leaving here the end of May and saying goodbye to both our neighbors and a few friends who will be moving while we are gone.  Our ward is losing a TON of families, but my heart hurts the most that we are going to lose both of our wonderful neighbors.  One family is finally graduating from Medical school and getting a real job, I'm excited for them.  The other family is moving to Minnesota for residence at the Mayo clinic.  This was their first pick so we are of course excited for them, but I would have loved it if they had matched here in Pittsburgh.  So we will most likely being losing the LDS compound and the backyard wonderland as the landlords have raised the rent high enough that none of the incoming LDS families want to move in.  It will be sad to come back to Pittsburgh in the winter and have so much changed.  It will be hard for the girls to lose all those neighbor kids (they play SO well together) and all that backyard space.  On top of it Tyler will be traveling for most of the rotations he has here, and with traffic we probably won't be seeing a lot of him most days (so it will be a lot like now), and we won't have a car.  I'm trying not to think about the Fall because it sort of makes me want to crawl in a hole and die.  But it's just got to be better than now, or at least not worse, because the last 2 months have been the biggest struggle of my life.  Tyler's last section were night classes and the kids would go days without seeing Dad or the sun.  It was utterly painful and stressful and miserable.  BUT the end is in sight.  I just have to make it to the 3rd week in May and then Tyler will be a bigger part of our family, we will be traveling to non humid states and seeing friends and family again.  Thank you summer!!!!!

      Tyler will finish his "nothing but school" year in May and we will report to Cheyenne, Wyoming for his first rotation on June 2nd. We get to spend 6 weeks with my Grandma in Cheyenne and then need to be in Browning, Montana on July 14th. After Browning we go to Utah and will stay with Tyler's parents while he does a rotation in SLC (I think) from August 24th until September 24th. The last rotation we have out west is in Wyoming again. The rotation itself will be in Riverton, but the girls and myself will stay in Worland with my Grandpa until it ends on October 30th! At that point we have a few days to drive cross country back to Pittsburgh where Tyler's next 4 or 5 (can't remember) rotations are in and around Pittsburgh.
We are pretty excited about this schedule for a few reasons.
1. We get to miss out on all the Pittsburgh summer humidity! YAY!!!
2. We will get to see my brother David before he leaves on his mission to Germany!
3. We get to spend quality and quantity time with so much family that we've been missing.
4. We get to live in Glacier National Park's backyard for a month!
5. We will get to see a lot of the country and hopefully get to spend more time with Tyler!

We are nervous about this schedule for a few reasons.
1. We will be moving every 5 weeks for 5 months. With 3 kids. How do you pack for that?
2.  It's hard taking kids out of a normal routine for a short vacation, 5 months with no routine..... can you say behavior problems and LOTS of tantrums?!! 

So I guess the last thing to report is that Tyler has Kidney Stones!!!!!  Our wonderful neighbor babysat our kids from 10pm until 1am while I took Tyler to the ER on Tuesday.  Fortunately he got pain medicine, unfortunately the stone won't pass and the medicine makes him foggy, tired and unable to study- not great conditions for a short and stressful unit in PA school.  So we are drinking lots of water and reading lots of home remedies.  Poor Tyler.

Birthday's 3 and 4 (Tyler and Quinn)

We had a few weeks of cold weather and homework catch up before birthday's hit again.  Tyler's was on a Sunday, but we did our best to treat him right.  Turns out the formula for fun little girl party isn't quite what you would use for a "Daddy turning 30" party.  We've establish that he isn't a huge fan of balloons.  He almost got breakfast in bed but instead got breakfast on the couch which was of course immediately pilfered from him by little hands.  This is the only picture of the day.  Tyler opted for banana split brownies instead of a cake which was enjoyed by all.

Next was Quinny!  Lucky for her that her birthday came the day after Tyler finished Unit tests!  Wednesday we went to our first Pirates baseball game.  Tyler got tickets for $1, we found parking for $5 and it was $1 hotdog night! Probably the cheapest dinner and entertainment we've had as a family ever.  We met up with a group of Tyler's school friends who doted on the girls and we had a wonderful time with friends watching a great game!

 

Thursday was Quinn's big day.  Heidi woke up with a fever and was a zombie all day unfortunatly, but Quinn started the day with a bath and then went straight on to presents!

  
We decided to get her useful things since we have so many toys, thus she received sandals from Heidi, a big ball from Alex, clothes from Mom and Dad and then the best gift of all......... a box of tissues.   She had at it and emptied half the box in a few minutes.

 It was a rainy day and we didn't quite know what a 1 year old would want to do for her birthday so the day sort of revolved around tissues and the cakes.  I had way too much fun making them. 
Quinn is just hilarious.  She is super smart and has a lot going on in that head.  She gives high 5's on command, accurately uses "uh-oh" and "all done" and Da-da.  She calls Alex Ah-heee, and Heidi Ha-heee, and every now and then, in a moment of true desperation she may actually say Mama.  She absolutely REFUSES to walk, or practice walking or pretend to want to walk.  If I try to stand her on her own 2 feet she goes limp and falls to the ground. 
She gets in to EVERYTHING and has an incredible reach.  She loves pounding on the computer while Alex is doing school, and barrel rolling when we change her diapers.  She will give hugs and kisses when asked and her hugs are extra special because she pats your back (or the doll or stuffed animal or wallet) and says ohhhhhhhhh and smiles.  If she is in a really good mood then after the hug she will bite your shoulder, or clamp down on your face if you happen to be a stuffed animal.  She is a very physical child and loves to interact with things and people in a very physical way. 

She devoured that cake.  I was baffled.  We finally pulled her away when it was 3/4 gone.  She didn't even make a big mess because she was constantly licking her fingers and eating the fallen pieces.  She eats SO much.  I finally think I have an idea what mother's of boys must mean when they say they can't keep their kids full. 

Quinn also pulls off a pretty good Count Dracula laugh, Ah Ah Ah Ah.  Her sisters absolutely adore her and she loves them.  In the morning when they wake up and come downstairs to be with us, Quinn always crawls over to them and pats them on the head or leg and says her "oohhhhhhh."

Daddy decided she wasn't messy enough and helped out.  Then Alex got in on the fun and then Quinn got another bath.  This week she also got to experience the ground for perhaps the first time.  She crawled up and down the sidewalk for a good 20 minutes before experimenting with dirt in her mouth.  It was obviously delicious because I couldn't keep the stuff out of her mouth after that.  We also established that she can climb the outside steps because they are wider, it became the only good thing about our super narrow inside stairs- Quinn's legs are too long and she hasn't figured out how to get up them.

She likes making choices and sits and thinks about her options.  If I offer 2 kinds of fruit or crackers she will look back and forth and back and forth and then point to the one she wants.  She does this with toys and clothes and food.  This is how we established that her favorite color is orange and knew how to decorate for her party. 
To sum it all up, Quinn is pretty fantastic and a huge blessing in our lives. I can hardly believe she is already 1!  Tyler is also pretty fantastic, and I can't believe he is 30!