No more speech

Yesterday was bittersweet. It was Matthew's last speech therapy session with his speech therapist. She started seeing him when he was 18 months old and would just roll around and drink his milk cup the entire time. She wasn't sure he would ever talk. Famous last words. 

I took her out to Panera and we had a great last meeting. I'll miss her and so will Matthew. She comes to our house every Monday and Matthew asked "will there still be Mondays?". Yes Matthew - you just won't have speech therapy anymore!  He doesn't qualify so his funding was cut. 

Me, Matthew, and Andrea

One thing Andrea noticed was his love of building. He really spends all day building new designs with magna-tiles and train tracks. He also has named his red truck "root beer". I'm not sure why but he actually really loves any kind of pop so maybe that's it. 

Matthew's favorite truck he named Root Beer

The kids and the cats

 In a few more months I'll have a middle schooler. That sounds crazy. Last week we had a meeting and toured the middle school. I think I'm more scared than she is. I snapped a picture of Jenna playing saxophone with her private lessons teacher, Jackie. Jenna loves band. She had the choice of both band and choir and chose only band because she loves it so much! She doesn't want to divide her activities.

Jenna and Jackie

Decorating Easter Eggs

 Last Wednesday we tested for our white belts. In our tae kwon do class we have to test for our white belts (some you are automatically a white belt). We all passed. Sarah got her green belt since she is a few belts ahead of us. Miss Kim is pictured - she is the teacher and is so patient, especially with the little kids (like Matthew)!

Our belts

 Yesterday was pi day (3/14) so we had quiche for dinner and chocolate cream pie for dessert. I'm not sure what happened to the rest of the chocolate cream pie ;). It's a new recipe I tried and was so good. The quiche was delicious too so we were all happy and round after dinner!

In other news:

• Our book club is reading the Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson. Numerous times in the book I've laughed out loud at one of the characters Wayne. He may be one of my favorite characters in any book (him and Mat from WoT). I love this character.
• I finished Red Queen and have moved on to Glass Sword the next book in the series. Unfortunately Jenna has read it before me! I keep trying to get her to tell me what happened but she won't give away any spoilers. I love reading books with her. 
• I finished the Huntress of Thornbeck Forest by Melanie Dickerson. It was good but not one I'll give to Jenna to read. 
• I'm on the list for Calamity by Brandon Sanderson. Waiting can be so hard!

Gaming and Birthdays and mid-life crises

The past few days have been really nice here  50°! We've enjoyed this beautiful weather. Before that it was cold so we just sat at home by the fire and played board games - not a bad thing. We only have activities once a week night (Wednesday) so the other days we are free. It's great! On Wednesdays we do family tae kwon do so it is something we are all doing anyway. The kids are doing really well. It is actually a decent workout. I assumed it wouldn't be, but all the fighting is using muscles we are not used to. Actually - my yoga has really helped out with it. I have good balance and can kick pretty well. The kids are obviously really flexible.  Erik is having more trouble and his kicks are almost comical but he is getting much better.

Jenna and her lego creator set

 For Christmas we got Jenna the Lego Creator set. This is a fancier lego set with many pieces for 12+. She did a great job and put it together herself. It is quite detailed!

Ticket to Ride

 I snapped some pictures of us at yoga. We now have 5 yoga mats so everyone has their own mat. We have been watching Camden, a little boy on Saturdays sometimes and Matthew loves it. He absolutely adores Camden. On Wednesday mornings I've been watching two kids for a stay-at-home Dad who is the worship leader at our church. I *almost* said no because it is during my spinning class.  This has forced me to change my workout schedule to: Monday (nothing), Tuesday (cardio blast), Wednesday (tae kwon do), Thursday (body blitz - weight training) morning and yoga with Jenna evening, Friday (zumba), Saturday (zumba and family yoga), Sunday (nothing). Although I think I need to add running on either Monday or Sunday because we are doing a 5K and a triathlon in April.  Yikes!

Yoga

Yoga

Headbandz game and Erik is a doll ;)

Sushi Go - Sarah loves puddings

Erik thinks I'm going through a mid-life crisis and it is manifesting itself in me wanting to learn everything. This may or may not be true....I took android training last November, am learning bass guitar, and plan on taking Certified Ethical Hacker training in a few months. Now I'm the lead developer on our android course sequence. Yay!

Erik's birthday is on Saturday. We plan on having a board game night but celebrated his birthday early with the family. I made a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and got him a Patriots jersey and the "Thing Explainer" book by Randall Munroe (xkcd.com). It is really pretty good!  He also wants an Eddie George Ohio State Jersey and I plan on getting that for him next. Boom!

Happy Birthday Erik!

This election news is driving me nuts. If Trump and Sanders win the nominations I'm going to write in a candidate. Maybe myself!!

On Monday we had Matthew's IEP meeting. I actually cried at the meeting. Matthew is going to regular kindergarten and only qualifies for handwriting help. He has advanced so much in the past few years. I'm so impressed with him.
 Check out these two videos. What a difference!!

Matthew Feb 2016: https://youtu.be/vlh1ZmKgChA

Matthew July 2013: https://youtu.be/X-WXVaNfkpM

Feb. 1 and already library fines...

We have exciting news! Our offer was accepted on our new rental house. We won't close until March 31st so we have to wait quite awhile but we are excited to get it. The house needs about $15000 of work, so we want to get in there and get started as soon as we Erik can. Even though it needs a lot of work, there is quite a bit of potential in the house. Right now we are waiting on the inspection, if they find major damage we will back out. So hopefully that goes well! This is the house link.

Now that I don't have to take my ring off to make bread, I've gone a little crazy. I made buns filled with oranges and pecans. Erik thought they were the best thing ever! So now I'm going to fill them with raspberry and pecans. He loves raspberry so this should be even better.  I could never be gluten free.... 

Orange pecan buns

 We played a new game called Cacao with the family. It is a new game we got for Christmas and we liked it. Matthew didn't want to play even though no reading was involved. We really need to get him into gaming!

playing cacao

Squirrel! Get out of my bird feeder :(

 I took both Jenna and Sarah's troops to our church to do yoga. They all set up mats and learned from Kate, a woman at our church who teaches Yoga at our Parks and Rec department. She was excellent and the kids loved yoga. My favorite part is corpse pose. She gave the girls each a lavender scented washcloth to put on their foreheads. It was so nice and relaxing (I got one too!).

Yoga

final relaxation!

 The past couple of days it has been 50° outside. So nice! The kids have been outside quite a bit, climbing the tree and going for hikes in the woods in the backyard (to find litter). The kids really love our woods, and I do too.

Three monkeys in a tree

In other news:

1. The new series I have been reading is fantastic. The first book is called the Eighth Day by Dianne K. Salerni and it is a similar concept to Harry Potter and Percy Jackson where there is a normal world and a magical world that everyone else can't see. Except it is Merlin/King Arthur. I love Merlin stories!
2. Our book club is finishing Override by the very famous Joel Cooper. I think it is begging for a sequel!
3. Jenna brought home the Fifth Wave which is currently out in theaters. I read the book quickly since it had to go back to her teacher. I liked it - lots of action. It's another post-apocalyptic story. 
4. I also picked up Knowing God by J.I. Packer. Our pastor talked about it at church one Sunday and I thought it sounded great. So far it has been an easy read.
5. I'm also a good way through Conqueror's Moon by Julian May. I'm enjoying this book as well.
6. It is February 1st and already I have failed on one of my New Years Resolutions. Yes - I have a library fine :(
7. Hopefully I can keep my other resolutions! Buying another house was one of them so at least I've got that one down.

2016 will be great!

This year has been really great for our family. Of course we are only 3 weeks in but so far it's been great! Matthew is now the Facilities Manager at Music Royale. Every time he goes there (for Jenna's lessons) he points out all the broken lights. They got new light bulbs for him to change and made business cards with his name on it. WOW! They really went above and beyond. I love Music Royale. Jenna can take saxophone lessons there forever.

Matthew now works at Music Royale

 We have had a little bit of controversy in my area recently. Twinkles is an outside cat (this is not a terribly unusual thing). Anyway, several people in my neighborhood have posted pictures of her - LOST CAT! etc. One person posted that she was going to box her up and take her to a cat shelter. YIKES! I posted on my local site that she is an outside cat and just let her out - she'll come home. Well then people started posting about coyotes, etc. Really? She is a tough cookie. She brings us mice all the time  - some of those mice are pretty big too. Why don't you put a collar on her? She won't wear one! We've tried! Anyway, she loves Erik so I had to take this picture of her resting on Erik. Outside cats have rights too!

Erik and Twinkles

 On Monday Jenna and Sarah had a combined birthday party with 56 kids! Wow! I invited friends, and both girl scout troops with siblings invited also. It was held at the church, and we hired a magician: Magic Nate who was really good. I loved his show! He was so classy. He didn't talk but rather played music while he did his tricks.  The kids really enjoyed it too. I was so engrossed that I forgot to take a lot of pictures so I only have two.

We ordered 13 pizzas (had 2 left over) and I made 78 cupcakes (we had 4 left over). It was a great party and the kids really had fun. Now to write thank you notes....

Magic Nate

Magic Nate dazzling

Happy Birthday Sarah and Jenna

Lots of kids at the party!

This is what I call killing two birds with one stone: Sarah reading to Matthew

 Jenna and Grandpa had a family birthday party. Jenna requested raspberry cake with lemon frosting. It was delicious. She loves berry and lemon so it was perfect for her!  We also had a "make your own pizza" bar.

Happy Birthday Jenna and Grandpa

 For motivation for me to lose these excess pounds I gained, I want to buy this dress. Erik's favorite color is green and I thought this would be my reward when I lose the weight. I have no idea where I will wear it (maybe around the house) but I love it!

this. 

Sarah and Matthew are no longer doing gymnastics. Actually we are doing family tae kwon do! Sarah and Matthew are taking the younger kids class and Erik, Jenna, and I are in the adult class. The teacher said Jenna could be with us. It's fun to do as a family and fun we can earn belts together. Of course Sarah is already an orange belt. We have to catch up to her. On Saturdays the Y has family yoga. We have been doing that together as well. These body awareness type exercises are good for Matthew. Hopefully it will help him read and write! So that's why I said it has been good for our family. We are doing yoga and tae kwon do together!

Erik and I may make an offer on a house soon. We found one we really like. It needs work - but Erik is so handy and we want another rental. We will see. The market is pretty empty right now.

So now I'm saving the best for last. I got Matthew's test scores from his teacher. He doesn't qualify for speech or OT. WHAT? He will most likely be in regular kindergarten. The only IEP he needs is monitoring his progress. He has come so far and is doing so well. I could not have asked for a better outcome. Praise God Hallelujah! 

Resolutions

Selfie on our "date" day

On New Years Eve we went to the Masts house and celebrated with the Masts and Mabrys. We have done this several years and I love spending New Years with friends! My parents had the kids New years Eve until lunchtime on Jan. 2. So we had all day on Friday to ourselves. It was difficult to decide what to do. Go to a movie? Out to dinner? Hang out at Starbucks? Too cold to go walking. So we did......nothing! In fact, we wore pajamas all day! We sat by the fire, ate leftovers, played Lords of Waterdeep, Heroes of Might and Magic, watched football, and read our books. It was a glorious day! Who knew doing nothing would be so awesome!

Magna-tiles

For Christmas, Matthew received Magna-tiles. It is the only thing he asked for. He LOVES them! He plays with them all the time with Sarah and even Jenna plays with them. It's a really great toy for him since he is a builder. He wants to be a "fixer" when he grows up. He'll also be a great "builder".

Jenna playing with magna-tiles

 Every night at dinner we read a question from a question bowl for our family to discuss. A few nights ago our question was, if you could eat dinner with three people alive or dead, who would it be. I though the answers were pretty hilarious:
Erik: Jesus, Tom Petty, and Gina
Gina: Jesus, Corrie Ten Boom, and Vin (from Mistborn)
Jenna: Jesus, Harry Potter, and Luke Skywalker
Sarah: Jesus, Jenna, and Peter
Matthew: Joel, Megan, and Darth Vader
we are all praying for Matthew....

Commissioned

 We were part of a kickstarter campaign for a cooperative Bible-based strategy game called Commissioned. We played it as a family even though it listed the ages as 14+.Well - Sarah had a hard time with it and Matthew didn't really play. I guess sometimes 14+ really does mean 14+. Jenna did fine. We ended up losing but still had fun.

One rings

I make bread every week - maybe 2-4 loaves. So I take of my wedding ring since there are several nooks and crannies (the technical term) that bread dough can get stuck in. Often I'm not wearing a ring for a week or so at a time because I forget to put it back on. So Erik and I decided to buy new wedding rings without nooks and crannies. And (obviously) we opted for the one ring. Now we have matching One Rings and I can make bread while still being married!

My new years goals/resolutions are:

1. No library fines. This will be the most difficult of all my goals. In fact, Erik laughed when I suggested this one.
2. Memorize a verse a week. We have post-it notes on our refrigerator with Bible verses and the girls are really good at memorizing! 
3. Lose the few pounds I gained over the holidays and maintain my weight under 123. 
4. Buy another rental house. We are looking for a new house but will most likely have to take out a mortgage. We want to leave the home equity line in case we want to buy land (which apparently  you can not take out a mortgage for!)
5. Enjoy every minute of my life! I'm not getting any younger.
6. Go on a weekend trip with Erik.
7. Sell more at a craft show.
8. Be early taking the kids to school.
9. Figure out how to grow zucchini without the squash beetle killing all of it.
10. Get more sleep

Epic Week

This past week was all about Sarah and Jesus. Sarah celebrated her baptism and faith in Christ. Then we celebrated Sarah's birthday and Jesus' birthday. Both sides of the family were here for Sarah's birthday and baptism. On Dec. 20th Sarah was baptized. She read Isaiah 40:31 and everyone was there to celebrate! We also had her birthday dinner and caramel cake (since that is her favorite). Many of friends came too! The Masts, Mabrys, Dailys, and Hansons all came. I couldn't believe the support she had. It was beautiful!

Happy Birthday Sarah

Sarah reading Isaiah 40:31

Sarah's baptism

The evening of Sarah's baptism we went to see Star Wars with Dave, Joel, Megan, Grandma, Missy, and Dave M. We left the movie loving it but admitted we'd seen it before since it was very similar to A New Hope. It was thought to be too scary for Sarah, so Erik took Jenna to see Star Wars and I took Sarah and Matthew to see the Peanuts movie on Monday.

Sarah with her godparents - Joel and Amanda

It was nice to have the California Coopers and Minnesota Coopers here. We played board games pretty much the entire week. We also went to see the zoo lights, had Starbucks every day!, watched a movie, bounced at Buckeye Bounce, got takeout Thai Orchid, made sushi, ate a LOT of delicious food, went to the Christmas Eve service, opened presents, drove around looking at Christmas lights, and told many jokes about Joel's enormous head (seriously, look at the picture and tell me it's not enormous!)

Jenna and Charlotte making bread

the brothers

All of us

The Beautiful Christmas table

Making gingerbread houses

Our whole family

Spending time with the family was so much fun. It always goes by so quickly! The kids also played really well with Charlotte and she even slept in their room a few nights. It was great to see them get along so well.

Our book club is now reading Joel's book called Override. Hopefully he will become a famous author one day and not forget about the rest of us peons.

Christmastime is here!

Christmas time is the best and busiest time of year. Having kids in school with parties, teacher gifts, performances, spelling bees, caroling, GAH! has made it a busy time. I feel like every hour of the past two weeks has been scheduled. It's all good though. It's all parties and we all like parties. And food. Can't forget the awesome food. January is for diets though.

Decorating cookies

We decorate cookies every year and had a great time this year! All the kids are good at decorating now and I don't feel like I need to touch any up. They gave the cookies to all their teachers as gifts. Since Matthew has 6 teachers, Jenna has 6 and Sarah has 1 (plus music, gym, and art teachers) we had to make a LOT of cookies.

Christmas Caroling with 5th grade choir

 Jenna is in both choir and band this year. Her choir went Christmas caroling in the neighborhood around school. Luckily it has been so warm lately so no one really needed to be bundled up. Then Jenna had her spelling bee. Jenna did well in the spelling bee. She spelled sky, problem, and shoehorn correctly. She missed hubbub. Of course I wasn't exactly sure how to spell that either. I didn't get a pic of Jenna up at the podium. I was watching her rather than taking pics ;). I think I was more nervous for her than she was!

Jenna on the end

On Saturday Red Barrel Crafts had our third craft show. This one was actually profitable! I made $322! I know it doesn't sound like a lot for an all day event but it was a lot more than we made previously. We sold several coasters, Ohio signs, all my Say Grace signs (so they are not pictured), Jen sold some of her signs too. It was a great experience.

Red Barrel Crafts

Santa

Sunday evening our church had its annual Christmas Smorgasbord and Children's program. The kids did an excellent job singing. Sarah had a solo to "Happy Birthday Jesus". It brought tears to many people's eyes! She was spectacular. Matthew had an impromptu solo. He started singing Jingle Bells really loud during poor little Sophie's Bible reading. He needs to apologize to that poor little girl! Jenna's Club 456 sang and did dances as well. Jenna knew all the words to Carol of the Bells and sang so well!

Club 456 at the Christmas program

Kidmax

Erik made this beautiful wood Christmas tree!

This weekend will be even more exciting than last weekend! Sarah is getting baptized on Sunday. All the family will be here to see it and we will celebrate her birthday. Then we will see Star Wars. What an exciting weekend we have. And all our family will be here!