Days Remembered

There are certain dates that have meaning for all of us. With a little help from someone very important, I have come to realize and accept that even those we do add meaning to specific dates, they are really little more than another day on the calendar unless you make something of them.

Three weeks ago happened to be one of these dates, my dad's birthday. This year he would have been 51 years old. I always knew the day would come when things would start to fade (I'm sure many small things started to years ago), and I had always feared that some of these dates that I had always tried so hard to pay close attention to would sometime fade as well. My mom ended up reminding me of it this year, which was perfect, but I still felt guilt for actually forgetting.

After the most supportive and understanding person I know reminded me that I really shouldn't be worrying so much about these dates and that it is OK to be busy with life and not dwelling on the past at all times, I made a plan to make it up to myself for not remembering. After Sunday School, I headed to the grocery store and bought one of the biggest pumpkins I could find. The kids and I brought it home and they each chose a different color and finger painted their names along with each of their hand prints. Last, Mason started putting Grandpa Steven's name on the pumpkin, but ended up needing a little help from Mom as it wasn't quite as easy as he thought it would be :) So, we got our pumpkin all painted and let it dry while the whole household took a much needed nap.

Yes the little ones are in their undies...finger painting is much easier to clean up this way ;)

Mommy helping write Grandpa Steven's name on the pumpkin while Koryn and Mason add the final touches.

The end result was absolutely perfect in my eye - a little messy, but still containing all the important part, which is exactly how our family usually is! We lugged the huge symbol of our love out to the cemetary and visited Grandpa Steven.

Another thing that I knew in the back of my mind would eventually come were questions. The kids have started asking more and more about Grandpa Steven and to be honest, I am more than happy to answer! I promised myself that my kids would always know who he was even though they will never able to meet him in person, and that is one thing I will not forget!

'Lazy' Monday Night

What do we do on a Monday night when Daddy has just left for who knows how long and we have nothing better to do?! We put clip on earrings, play jewlery, and read a book (in between cooking supper, bathtime, sweeping up billions of those lovely flies, and doing a little bit of fall decorating!)

 

 

 

Guess who's 3?!

That's right, another year has passed and our little girl has now turned 3! What an amazing three years it has been. She has definitely shown us what a girl can be...happy, sad, excited, snuggly, independent, and so much more all in the same breath! She really is a joy and, as much as I have a feeling we may have it in for us in the years to come, I cannot wait to see what the future holds for our bright ray of sunshine!

Yep, our little girl requested a "choo choo train cake".

Trap Shooting

This summer, Mason's choice of sport happened to be something new for us. As much as many of you would shame me for doing it I ended up successfully talking him out of playing baseball so that it would leave us a little more time to enjoy the summer rather than running around to practice 2 or 3 nights a week and then games another 1 or 2 nights a week. My rule has always been that he (and the little kids in the future) can only do 1 sport per season. He brought home the paper for trap shooting and was really interested in it, so I figured we could give it a chance since it was just one night a week and no commitments on going to any sort of meets if we didn't want to. Well, as we suspected, he thoroughly loved learning the proper way to use a gun in a safe environment and shooting the clay pigeons as much as possible! He even got in a couple of fun rounds at home with his uncle and dad when they were around long enough to throw the clay pigeons for him!
Last night happened to be the "end of the year party" if you will for the trap shooting club. The guy that heads it up really wanted Mason to be there so we rushed from work out there to grill out and then get a round of shooting in. Mason also received 2 trophies for the season. He received 1st place for Match #1, which would be the best score out of the whole state of shooters in his age bracket from June-July. He also received 3rd place for Math #2, which went from July-August. You can see he was pretty proud in his picture below! He really didn't know where he was going to put the trophies since his trophy case "has no room" as he told me last night. Maybe that will be Grandpa Myron's next project for us ;)

Taking it in

Well, I think I have been MIA for quite some time as far as this blog goes. On the other hand, I have been very present in the day-to-days of the life that has grown to be our "norm." This blog has been in the back of my mind for a while now and simply cannot put off any longer getting back to trying to record these things that have been happening with us!

When I think of what has been taking up so much of our time, it may not be anything really special to anyone else but us (except Mason that is, who "hates" having to go home all the time!) Mr. Mason has proven a challenge for me to keep busy as the school year ended over a month ago. He has attended a football camp and a wrestling camp and has a couple more coming up. He takes advantage of anytime that he can snatch with his cousin and when he can't hang out with her, he keeps himself busy going to the pool or hanging out with his best buddy. I have come to the realization that I  absolutely do not give this kid enough credit. An amazing kid with a big heart is the only way I can explain him!

Koryn is getting to be such a little cutie, with quite an attitude if you can believe it! There is no escaping her little charm that she puts on her daddy and I and she knows it. Her favs right now: babies (dolls), necklaces, pierced ears, barbies, tractors, puzzles, and even  temporary tattoos. Quite a combinations, huh? She knows what she wants and she has no problem getting it either. As much as that may be a little bit of a problem right now, I can only hope that she keeps that ambition as she grows up.

Jarrik is our little bruiser. He is a brute, and there is no mistaking it. He has grown past the point of us running to him and wondering what is wrong when he screams out (most of the time that is.) I say this because most of the time when this happens he is mad at his sister for taking something away and he in turn takes her down like a true wrestling, literally. I'm sure his brother will help him grow into that roll, or maybe he will be helping Mason :)

As I sit taking all of this in every day, I have to smile. As crazy as our life gets, it is still awesome. I wouldn't have it any other way. As I write this I am vowing to myself to really TAKE IT ALL IN a little more and not worry so much about the little things.

-On a side note...I promise I will put pictures on here soon!

Work out time

During wrestling season, we have started a routine of having Mason do sit-ups, push-ups, and jumping-jacks every night. He started out with I believe 25 of each and then it was supposed to go up by 5 each night. Well, this week we are preparing for districts so I guess Dad has decided to up the anty. Mason has been doing 25 more each night and as of last night he was up to 300 of each. I know...it is alot, but he does very well with it and has a system down of doing them in sets of 25 each.

I have been trying to eat right and have begun somewhat of a work out routine for the past 4 weeks. The last couple of nights, I have decided to do Mason's work out with him. Don't get carried away, I have no been able to actually make it through his whole work out, but I have been trying. Last night I did 7 sets with him, but he is so fast that I only get 15 sit-ups done to his 25!! If you have ever been in our house, you know how tiny the living room is. Craig moved some furniture around the other day, but it pretty much just gave it a different layout and didn't actually provide any extra room. While Mason and I decided to get going on our work out, Craig was sitting on the couch (yes, just sitting there watching us and not participating!), Jarrik was crawling around trying to figure out what was going on, and Miss Koryn decided to join in!! This was alot of commotion going on in our small living room! Here is a video of Koryn's workout....

Mama Jones

Why is it that I still feel like I am in school every time I go to write a new blog post? I get very excited to update everyone on what has been going on with us, but then we I look at the post screen I get stuck on the title (which is what would always happen to me in high school and even in college.) This frustrates me to no end because I let it get to me and eventually navigate away from the page and forget about the post all together, hence the reason why I have not posted much lately!

Playing with Bubba's remote-control Monster truck only after he left the house and she got a chance to get to it!

Most of my posts seem to focus on mainly one child at a time. Mind you, this is not on purpose! It just so happens that when the majority of these things happen, it is while the other 2 are off making trouble, fighting with each other, or else out of the house for various reasons. The apple of her daddy's eye (sometimes maybe the thorn in his side) Koryn is at that age where almost every moment is worth a picture, video camera, or just simply writing it down to remember how cute or funny it was. She has a lingo all her own, I call it Koryn language, and she is pretty darn good at verbalizing anything and everything she might need.
The other day we were leaving day care and this is the conversation we had when walking to the car:
Koryn: That's Yanye's (Layne's) Daddy
Me: What's Layne's Daddy's name?
Koryn: Brian
Me: What's your daddy's name?
Koryn: Craig
Me: What's your mommy's name?
Koryn: Mama Jones!
I laughed out loud thinking how cute this was! I have never heard her say that to me before, so I have no clue where she got it, but I guess I have become Mama Jones somewhere along the way!

My little chef!

Koryn has always had a fascination with the moon. I don't know where this came from or how it started, but everytime we would get in the car at night, she would immediately ask where the moon was. She has now begun to ask where it is every time we go outside, day or night. So, I play along with her game and sometimes I make stories up. If it is the middle of the day I will tell her that the moon is sleeping or that he is hiding. The other day it was cloudy and she asked where it was so I told her that he was mad and didn't want to come out. She proceeded to talk about why he was mad quite a bit of the way home. Her daddy and her have some stories of their own about the moon. One night Craig brought her home and she came in the door spouting off something. I wasn't sure exactly what she was saying, so I asked her to repeat it. "My daddy's gonna rope the moon!" Yet another moment that I don't want to ever forget!

Not the normal "1st Christmas"

I have neglected to post anything for quite some time now, and I apologize for that. I have really been meaning to get to it, but it just never seems to get done!
As most of you know, Jarrik's first Christmas was definitely a memorable one for us. As he was progressively getting sicker and I was pushing the nebulizer and Motrin in order to keep the low grade fever down, the nurse at Sanford advised us that we should get him to the emergency room as soon as we could. So, our Christmas night was spent in the emergency room, and later in Pediatrics at Avera. After much poking, prodding, swabbing, X-raying, and waiting, we found out that Jarrik had RSV and strep throat. The ER doctor told us that they would need to keep him over night for "observation." So, I went up to the Pediatric unit thinking it wasn't going to be so bad. How wrong I was. They had to give him an IV (which they tried 3 times at and was not pretty!) and he had to be on oxygen and IV antibiotics. When the doctor came in on his rounds the next morning, he said "Our goal is to have you home by New Years." Mind you, that would have been 5 days away at that point. I laughed and thought he was just joking. Wrong again. Thank goodness my friend who works as a respiratory nurse at Avera. If she wouldn't have been there, I don't think I would have understood what was going on to the extent. Since Jarrik had to be on oxygen, he would have to be in the hospital for 24 hours AFTER they took him off of the oxygen. I was defeated when I heard that. By that time, I was there by myself at night time since Craig was home with the other 2 kids and it was pointless to waste gas on coming down for an hour or 2 and then going back again. In the end, we ended up staying 3 nights and 2 days. It was long enough in my book.

Night #1

Trying to rest in the hospital crib.

Feeling a little better the next day.

After Grandma Nita and Grandpa Lonnie showed up he was the happiest little guy on the planet!

No more oxygen tube!!

 Mr. Jarrik is still not 100% as RSV can hang on for quite a while. We are still doing nebulizers and trying to get him breathing better.