Brie makes partner!
I try to keep the blog to kid-specific events so me making partner is not really the essence of this post, however, it is worth mentioning as you will see...
I did make partner and was very much excited to be the "guest of honor" this year at our holiday Christmas party (not really, but I knew they would make a toast and mention it and I would have the opportunity to get up and say a few words). So, when we woke up on Saturday morning - the day of the big event - and Leif was so sick to his stomach he could barely move, I did my best to hide my disappointment. He really was awfully sick - horribly nauseated and running a high fever. He was miserable. But at least I had my mom. Oh wait. I text her about Leif and she wrote back "strange because I feel nauseated too." My heart sunk. It can't be related. She must be in her head. A few hours later, she started throwing up. Poor mom and there goes my babysitter.
Still thinking my mom and Leif were unrelated incidents and believing that Leif had food poisoning, I started raking my mind for someone who could help. In the end, I decided I would put down Presley, put the kids in front of a movie, race to Seattle, make an appearance, and fly home. What could happen? Worse case scenario, the kids would still be up when I got back. We could do this and Liam was up for the task.
I juggled the three kids - more than juggled actually - we got our Christmas tree and decorated the whole house! Then I got ready to go - hair, dress, accessories, high heels...check. Baby down...check. Kids in front of a show...check. And then Skyler said the words that made my stomach drop. Just as I grabbed my bag to get in the car, she says "Mommy....I don't feel so good."
Long story short from there: I cleaned up puke for 48 hours (the first two hours, I was still in my dress). EVERYONE in the family got it except for me (although I felt horribly nauseated the whole time - something to do with watching so many people be ill). Leif and my mom had the worst of it. The kids recuperated quickly. In the end, we all spent a lot of time snuggling together at home in front of the tree we had decorated just days earlier.
And I did get to see the toast, albeit, via text.
School Pics
First family hike - Thanksgiving 2014
I have been dying to get out with the kids and actually attempt a "real" hike. We have taken them to St. Edwards a few times and while it is certainly beautiful and we have always had fun, it has left me longing for something more.
Fall Morning
One of the neighborhood moms text me this morning to see if I wanted to walk down to Starbucks with the kids and then over to the park. Since Leif was heading to the island for the day to winterize the place, I figured, why not!? It ended up being two adults, one baby Presley, seven boys, and three girls. Total chaos but so much fun. We are so blessed to live in a neighborhood that has so many kids! Every day the kids come home from school they are right back out the door with their buddies. Liam is no longer shy with the older kids because he is so darn good at football that everyone wants to play with him. We literally had 6th graders knocking on our door last weekend to ask Liam to come play (scary). And Skyler has her very best friends just doors away. It is so dang cool! It was a gorgeous day and I hope we can make it a tradition on Saturday mornings when it isn't raining out!
Halloween 2014
It was a full day and I was so grateful to have the time to participate in all the fun events today. Both kids had parties in their classes and then paraded around the school showing off their costumes - Rainbow Dash (My Little Pony) and Leonardo (Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtle). Liam told me I had to wear a costume so I dressed as a baby - felt humiliated all day long but Liam's smile when he saw me made it worth it! It was a typical Goat Hill Halloween with a million kids on a ton of sugar running around in the dark. Leif made fireball eggnogs for the adults and we all headed out around 6:30. Presley made it half way down the road and them decided it was night night time. The kids and Leif came back about an hour later and we went through all the candy before bedtime. Tomorrow the pumpkin king will come and exchange all the candy for a toy.
Liam's 7 year check up
We were about a month and a half late but here are his stats at 7 years old! Such a healthy kid and thriving in so many areas. His favorite things are playing football, watching football, football video games and Presley. So proud of our first born!
Conference Week
I am using this blog entry to discuss the craziness of the last three weeks because, although I feel like the stress may kill us, going to Liam and Skyler's school conferences this morning made everything feel okay again!
Three weeks ago we lost our nanny. It is a VERY long story and I really do not want to get into it here, but it was abrupt, awful and we felt the loss of her help pierce through the house almost immediately. However, in hindsight (if I can even say I have that at this point), I do believe God's hand was in this. You would think that with a full time nanny, life would have felt more manageable for Leif and I, yet it really wasn't. Both he and I simply worked more in order to (a) afford her, and (b) fill up the time that she freed. As I think about it now, it was a total luxury having Erica but in a lot of ways, we delegated many of the parenting duties that I enjoy to her and filled our extra time with work. How is that God's plan? Isn't work supposed to come 4th or 5th on the list of importance? And yes, it is nice to have someone that cleans my house and does my laundry. But I like to be the one in charge of what my kids eat each day and when they have playdates or downtime...I want to be the one they come to after the school day to share their excitements or disappointments...the one that takes them to all of their doctor appointments and is there to give them the security they need. So in the end...I think this is just God's way of saying....once again....SLOW DOWN CRAZY PEOPLE!!!
To make the last few weeks even crazier, our car was stolen out of my mom's parking lot. Yes...stolen. Yes...in Kirkland. WHOSE CAR GET'S STOLEN??!?! Its just so weird. So, after three weeks of dealing with our insurance (who I really can't complain about - they have been great), and lugging three kids around in a fabulous electric blue Nissan Versa that smells like stale smoke, our car was found in a church parking lot. I have mixed feelings as we had all but moved on to a new car, but the reality is is that we would have taken a financial hit since we could not recover the value that we originally put down on the car and we could not, for the life of us, agree on whether or not to get a minivan. It is inevitable, I know, but this gives us one more year to contemplate and accept it!
Now for the good news. We went to Carl Sandburg this morning for Liam and Skyler's conferences and walked away feeling like "maybe we are doing something right!" They are both thriving in school, got nothing but praise from their teachers and are both testing off the charts. It was so fun and so uplifting! Their "report cards" are below. Note that the only thing Skyler was tested on was Phonetics and the "goal score" for Kindergarten students is 10 - she scored 40 (actually, running past 40!). The "goal scores" for Liam are the numbers shaded underneath his scores (yes he did score 104 when the expectation was 27!). Hey...if I can't brag on my kids blog (that only their grandparents read), where can I brag!!!
SO SO SO PROUD!
