'Tis the Season!

Well (insert sigh)....we made it through another 10-day sprint as we call it here in Sankeyville.  We have 3 birthdays and Christmas in a 10-day span (Dec 15-25th).

We had lots of good food (i.e. expanding waistlines), made lots of goodies (i.e. expanding waistlines), ate lots of birthday cake (note 3 birthdays above which equals expanding waistlines) and had visits from lots of friends and family (i.e.laughter therapy that hopefully helped reduce above mentioned expanding waistlines).

Brian turned 41.  Not a big celebratory number as far as birthdays go.  But the very important thing about 41 is that when he started his nine year plan to become a physician it was always, "I will be 41 when I am finally in practice."  Well, 41 has finally arrived. (insert big happy face here!)

Graysen turned 2 on December 23rd.  He is such sweet little boy.  He loves yogurt and drinking from a straw.  His dad and sisters introduced him to chocolate milk the other day.  The next morning he was standing in the fridge (yes, in the fridge) pointing at the Hershey's syrup and yelling.  I just looked at Brian and rolled my eyes.  He loves cell phones, DS's and any other toys that he can get his hands on that belong to his older siblings.  Ella is his second mommy and he often goes to her first when he gets hurt (insert mommy sad face here).

Carly turned 5 on Christmas Day.  She still believes all the Christmas lights are her birthday lights (I hope she believes this forever).  December 25th is starting to overwhelm her a bit.  We were up at 6am to do Santa and then we opened our family gifts.  We then switch to Carly birthday mode in the afternoon.  Her godparents (and their kids) came over and celebrated with us.    We had a Buzz Lightyear cake that one of the gals from Happy Time (the kids' old preschool) made.  She loved the cake ("Mom, it exactly what I wanted!  Insert Mom comment: 'I am so glad, because it saved me hours of not having to make little frosting dots which I don't have the patience for!")  By the time she had opened all of her presents she came up to me and quietly whispered that she wanted to open more presents.  Sigh.  She wasn't being bratty, just honest.  How do you explain to this not-so-consolable child that this is it for presents for her for the next 364 days.    I know....we may have to start considering the half birthday idea for her.  Or maybe this is just a life lesson she is going to learn (endure) from a young age. 

We are now into a new week.  Brian had to go back to work today (he was on vacation last week).  He is chief for the next 2 weeks which means some long hours.  Only 6 more months I keep reminding myself.  The kids are off school for another week.  They are running around and playing with their new toys and going to friends' houses to check out their new toys. 

We were up most of the night on Christmas Eve and Christmas because Graysen got croup.  We have all had the sniffles and sneezes as of late.  I am ready for Spring (I know this is wishful thinking).  We did have a beautiful white Christmas (8 inches of snow fell on Christmas Eve).   We do live in Iowa, and we do have crappy winters.   I don't mind an occasional blizzard if all of my family is home and safe.   I just really don't like ice or being cold.  Thank goodness for warm blankets and snuggling!  :)

I hope all of your Christmases were joyful!  I hope your new year is blessed!  There are so many things to be thankful for everyday!

Off to chase my monkeys....maybe that will help with the expanding waistline!  Or else when the monkeys are in bed tonight I will be looking into ordering a new treadmill!  :)

Alana

Summer Blessings

Ahhhhhhh.....  That is not a yelling ah, but an ah of joy and relief.  I am so thankful that after several years of contemplating (and tears) that my husband was able to convince me that the decision for me to stay home could happen a little earlier than we had planned (this year instead of next). 

This summer has been a true blessing for my spirit.  It sounds dumb to say you are 'nervous' to stay home everyday with your own children, but I was just that.  I have worked since I was 15 years old.  Being a salary earner for our family was part of my identity.  Being the sole earner for 4 years while Brian was in school was a must. 

The transition to being at home was a lot smoother than I thought it would be.  Our summer schedule was not even a schedule.  It was a 'get up whatever time you wake up' summer.  Thankfully, we now have a toddler that likes to sleep in like his mommy (even if he still gets up several times during the night).  :)

As I type this blog entry the school bell just rang down at the elementary school for the first day of school.  Another ahhhhh moment (again, not a yelling ah).  My littlest ones are not even out of bed yet!  We have decided to start homeschooling this year.  We actually started a few days ago.  We are easing into that schedule too.

My world is a much better place when done at an easy pace.  Not a hectic pace.  Not a harried pace.  Not on someone else's time schedule.

Summer blessings:  no schedule, ice cream trucks, swimming, slip and slides, learning about the world around us from a child's point-of-view.

Fall is in the air now.  Windows are open.  Cool breezes.  My favorite time of year.

Scraping and Priming

The painter got started the last week in June. I am so glad that I am not the one scraping the house. Ugh. We have a very nice Amish gentleman doing the work and many days his son comes with him. The house is almost all primed. I almost changed my mind on the color choice because I really like the primer color (Brian said we are sticking wtih the original plan!). :)

 

Slip and Slide Fun

The heat index today was 110 degrees Fahrenheit!  That is crazy HOT!  Gotta love the temperature extremes that we experience in Iowa.  The kids wanted to do the slip and slide tonight.  I took Graysen outside so he could watch and he decided he wanted to join in!

Twits, Ears and Sweet Sixteen!

I think 'twit' is a funny word.  I am not sure why.  Just one of those words that causes the giggles.  It's not a word I use or hear very often.  However, last week while Carly, Ella and I were playing Sequence Carly yelled at Ella and said, 'Stop being such a twit!'  Yah!  That's my Carly!  It's really hard not to laugh at those moments.  :)

Well, yet another Sankey child has to have tubes put in their ears.  Graysen has had struggles with his ears since birth.  He did not hear much, if anything, for the first 4-6 months of this life.  He was seeing an ENT at that time and it was determined that it was just fluid in his ears from being in-utero.  It eventually seemed to clear up and the ENT said to just watch him closely.  Fast forward to about 16 months old and I noticed that all he was saying was da-da.  To some, this would not seem to cause alarm.  He is the 5th child that has a lot of little doting mother hens that don't give him much of a chance to talk, but he had been saying more words around 14-15 months (Ella, crackers, etc).  Then it was just like he stopped talking.  He would follow simple commands that I gave him, but I could also walk into his bedroom and say his name and he would not even know I was there.  Anyway, I followed my mommy instincts and took him to the doctor, who referred us to the ENT again.  He failed the hearing test in both ears (flat lines in both--not a good thing).  So, tubes in and adenoids out on July 20th. I know little Gray has so much to say to me, so I cannot wait until the tubes are in so he can hear new words and start saying them back to us!

Brynna Nicole turned 16 on Monday!  These years are so hard for me!  Not because of angst of teenager-dom, but because my countdown timer is always on.  Counting until she will be 18 and want to move out of the house.  :( 

My mom came down and we took her out to lunch at Old Chicago and then we went shopping.  She tried on some really cute prom dresses (great clearance sales right now) and I bought her a few things (tank tops, shorts, jeans).  She was most proud of the $4 dollar pair of jeans she found at Kohl's (regularly $40).  I LOVE that my daughter is thrifty!  I took her to get her driver's license that afternoon and when we got home she asked to go somewhere.    It is so hard to watch your child drive away by herself for the first time. 

She is a great young lady and we love her with all of our hearts!  She made us parents for the first time, and has dealt with all of our parenting guffaws (there seem to be lots of them with the first child).  She has an old soul and a heart of gold.  We love you Bryn!  :)

School's Out for Summer!

Finally!  The kids got out of school for the summer last Thursday (June 10th)!  They had a few snow days to make up.  And so now we journey into our summer schedule.  Bryn has 2 jobs this summer.  She is babysitting for a family with 4 kids just down the street from us and she is working at a new bakery that is opening up downtown Cedar Falls.  (Bonus:  both are within walking distance so we don't have to have 'car wars' yet).  Ethan has been keeping himself busy by biking around the neighbor, going fishing and playing video games.  Ella and Carly start swimming lessons tomorrow.  Carly is worried and keeps saying,  "But I don't know how to swim!".  She obviously doesn't get the point of 'lessons' yet.  :)

We are getting our house painted this summer by an Amish gentleman.  Below is our new color.  It's almost the exact same color as the siding we put on our old house (1 block away). 

Brian extended our swingset area so the swingset could actually sit in the rock.  He had to dig up a bunch of the yard and put in some new wood border.  We still need to get a load of rock in to fill it up some more.

(Retirement note:  I do NOT miss getting up everyday and going to work.)

Mothers Day

We spent a quiet weekend at home.  My mom came down on Saturday.  It was cold out (frost warnings in May).  On Sunday the sun decided to come out for a bit so we decided to get out in the yard and try to figure out where my vegetable garden was going to be planted this year.   I had visions of nice rectangle framed, raised garden beds that I thought should be placed on top of the ridiculous putting green in our yard.  Well, after much debate it was decided that we would pull up some existing flower beds and plant on the south side of the house.  After much digging up, replanting, recycling stones that were randomly buried in our yard to be used as the 'frame' around the garden, and mulching, we are now ready for the beans, tomatoes, peas, carrots and peppers to go in.  It's still too cold and now REALLY wet as it rained all day today.  

  Here we are in our 'American Gothic' pose.  Notice the rake in my hand....I broke it!  Don't ask!   LOL

Here is one other pic of the princesses and the Queen Mother (as they named themselves).  Gotta love McDonalds Happy Meal toys!

The wheels on the bus do go round and round, even when the bus is over capacity!  I think this looks like a picture from a Richard Scarry book.  Can you find Goldbug?  ha-ha

Retirement note:  Monday was Menards day and a Girls Night Out with my friends, Tuesday was Home Depot, Sears and Target, along with drum lessons for Ella and yoga for me in the evening.  Today was a doctor appointment for Ella and a great hour massage for me.  I have gotten a few things off my checklist, but no routine has been established.  :)

Retirement....

So, yesterday was my last day of employment....in the corporate world.  I told people I was retiring and I heard a lot of  'You aren't retiring....you're not old' and 'It's not retiring when you have 5 kids at home to take care of!'  They are sort of right.  I am retiring....and my definition of retirement is this....'I get to spend every day with my favoritest (yes, that is a word) people in the whole world and do the things that I want to do on my schedule'.    I may not be bringing home the bacon anymore, but I am making the memories that I want to make with my kids and husband.  And I am finally at the point of being okay with turning over the bacon makin' responsibilities to my husband.  :)

My friends from work were great on Friday.  We took the VGM Party Bus to Tokyo (Japanese steakhouse) for lunch.  One of my favorite places!  We ate and had a great time talking about LOTS of fun times we have all had together.  They have been my second family for the last 14 years!  I have spent about 28,000 hours of my life with that group of people and I must say that even on the most stressful days I could not have asked for a better group of people to work with.

Monday will be a whole new world for me.  I think I am ready to tackle it.  The best part(s) are that Brian is on vacation that day and I am meeting my BFF's for drinks after work.  Cheers!

Cousins and Trifles

We had a great weekend!  My cousin Jason was in town with his girlfriend Joanna.  It was great to meet her!  Jason has always been a kid at heart and while he was here he and Ella had a little impromptu piano recital.  I wish that they lived closer to us because it would be awesome to see them MUCH more often!

I have to share one other thing.  I made my first trifle tonight!  Some will find this quite amusing since I actually loathe cooking, baking, pretty much anything involved with the kitchen!  But I got this great new bowl and we are having our small group over tomorrow night and we always have desserts.  The picture is below.  This is not full presentation mode since it has to go in the fridge tonight, but I just wanted to show that I can make things (when I actually put forth some effort!).  I even made some little baby trifles for the kids!

Life Changes

I am really trying to get better and blogging more often....hopefully that will be easier soon. I have put my notice in at work and will officially be a stay-at-home-mom after May 7th. This was a VERY tough decision for me.

I have wrestled (with myself) about this change for a long time. Some days I would think...duh...easy decision, other days I was filled with so much angst. I had a very clarifying moment a few weeks ago, and decided it was time. Brian has always been supportive of me staying home or working at whatever level I felt was manageable for our family. The hard part was telling my boss. I tried for 4 days before I actually got 2 minutes of his time and was able to utter the words that I was leaving after 14 years. I am really going to miss seeing my friends every day, but I know we will all stay in touch.

More great news from this week: Brian has signed his contract for his 'real job' (as I like to call it). He will be working at a family practice clinic in Waterloo starting in August of 2011. This may sound like a very long ways off for some, but the planner in me loves that this part of the journey is done. It's confirmation that the 9 year plan is almost complete. We will NOT have to move again and Brian is very happy with his decision. I am so proud of him!

Cacti Fun and another birthday at the Sankey house

Mom got back from Arizona just before Ella's birthday (March 18th). She gave Ethan his own little cactus and she gave the little girls cactus seeds and little pots to grow them in. Carly decided to start hers yesterday. I told her that it can take about 2 weeks to grow. She checked it this afternoon and was disappointed that nothing was happening yet. No concept of time!

Ella's 7th birthday was fun! She got a new pogo stick, some hockey sticks and a pink telescope from mom and dad. She is up to 6 consecutive jumps on the pogo stick! Pretty good. She got a big bag of Cheetos from Ethan and a bottle of orange pop from Brynna. I think those were her favorites! Ah, to be 7 again and really enjoy the little things in life! :)

The little girls went up to my mom's for a few days last weekend. They have been begging for some 'grandma time'. They got to play Zhu-Zhu pets, go to Uncle Ron's, and go to Birdsall's to have yummy ice cream! Fun times! I got to enjoy a trip up to Savers and Value Village with Jacinda and Amy. We found a couple of new stores that had opened since we were last up there and they are now our favorites! Good times with great friends.

The Flip Couch

Graysen's teacher asked me the other day if he has his own chair at home because he has been making himself quite at home on a baby seat they have in his room at daycare. She says he just lounges back like he owns the place. No chair at home, but he does have his own couch. He likes to toddle over to it and flop down on his belly, he likes to climb on it to get to other 'higher' places (like the real couch) and he loves to just lounge on it!

Our other 'little man' turned 12 last Saturday. We are waiting to have a clear night so he can use his new telescope! Happy Birthday, E!~

A fun week...

I went on Carly's school field trip on Thursday. They went and did gymnastics at a local gym. Carly did really well! Wouldn't surprise me if she was taking gymnastics there some day. Then we went to Old Chicago and ate some yummy pizza! That was interesting with thirty 4 year olds!
Two of my co-workers had baby girls this week! I got to hold one of them when she was only 10 hours old! Love that! They are both adorable!

Ethan told me at around 4pm today that he had a loose tooth. At 4:02pm he looked at me and said, 'Mom, I lost my tooth!' That is a record for that child! The last loose tooth he had lasted for over 2 years and the dentist ended up pulling it! Maybe someday he will lose enough to actually get his braces on! :)

My mom left for Arizona on Thursday. She and some of her friends rent a house down there for a few weeks. This is the second year she has gone. I really wish that I was going someplace warm! I am sure they will have a fun time (hopefully not too much wine will be consumed). :)

We took the kids to Lowe's on Saturday morning for a building clinic. Ethan, Ella and Carly each made a LoweBot. That is the Lowe's version of a transformer. They are actually pretty cool. They each got aprons, goggles and a badge for completing their project. They have these clinics every other Saturday and they are free!

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Graysen's funny faces

Graysen makes so many funny faces! Lately he has been making an 'angry face' that just cracks us up (see video at about 1:38). This video was taking during dinner one night. You can witness the chaos of our family quite readily in this one!

One year later

Wow! Life has been busy and needless to say, my blog has suffered just a little bit in the last year! I am just 3 days short of not blogging for a whole year. Ugh.

Well, it's not that nothing has happened in the last year. Here are some highlights:

Baby Gray turned 1 on Dec 23rd and he is now toddling! He started walking about 1 month ago and the chase is officially on. On the rare occasions that we forget to put the gate up on the stairs (going upstairs) he somehow makes it to the top and into the farthest bedroom in 5 seconds! Then I am yelling for him to try and figure out where he is and he doesn't make a peep! Reminds me so much of Ethan when he was little when he would sneak chocolate (of any kind) and go hide and eat it. He goes to daycare at the same place Carly goes to preschool. He has 5 little friends that he loves to play with every day. He also loves Ms Anna and Ms Jess (his teachers). He is a very picky eater! I was really hoping that he would be easy going with food. But he lets you know if he does not like something (head tossing to the side and mouth clenched shut)!

Brynna started high school this year (10th grade). She finished up Drivers Ed last Fall and is eagerly awaiting her 16th birthday this summer! It's trying at times to have a teen in the house that is trying to figure out who she is. She is a great young lady, with the same spunk that her mom had at that age (only she's a bit nicer and less sarcastic). Trying to cherish these moments because the dread of her moving out to go to college has already set in for me. :(

Ethan is in 6th grade this year. He still excels at school. It's sad to say that he has already surpassed his mom in his Math abilities. I wish I would have received that gene! Luckily he got that one from his dad! He is still playing his guitar, although his lessons will be ending soon. He has had an awesome teacher (one of the musicians from our church band) instructing him for the last 2 1/2 years. We are trying to figure out which direction to go with him next. He most likely could teach himself, but the structure and the encouragement he got from lessons was vital. We will have to see what happens!

Ella Grace is a reading machine! She has been reading her Bible with Brian every night. They have already finished the Beginner Bible and are moving on to the next one! That has been a special time for her and Brian each night. She loves chapter books too! She has lost 6 teeth already and has several more loose ones. It already appears that she will be embarking on an orthodontic journey just as her older siblings have done! She started piano last summer and is doing awesome! She has an ear for music (again, I am not sure where that one came from as neither Brian or I have music talent). She has had a couple of recitals and he just gets up there and plays without being nervous at all.

Carly Elizabeth turned 4 on Christmas Day! She still loves all of the birthday lights that everyone in our neighborhood hangs up for her birthday! She goes to preschool everyday and has learned all of her letters and can count to 20 (only missing 14-17)! She loves to sing, dance, wear her swimsuits around the house and her canasta suits (translation: gymnastic suits)--lol! She is still our spunkiest child by far and tests limits daily! She got sick in October (ear infection) which led to a nasty throat infection and she stopped eating and drinking (and taking her meds) so she ended up in the hospital. That was really scary for me! It was minor on the scale of what some families are dealing with, but none of our kids have been in the hospital before. She then had to get tubes in her ears (2nd time) and her adenoids out in January. Hopefully this will help with her ear infections.

We are all ready for the snow to melt so we can get outside again! The snow has been fun this winter, but we would like to be able to play at the park again!

I went part-time at work in October. I work 9-2 everyday. This has been a good transition for me. Gives me some adult time, but more time to be with the kids too.

Brian made it through his first year of residency (June 2009). Started his 2nd year (July 2009). The first 6 months of his 2nd year were not fun. Probably more of what a resident's schedule really looks like. He amazes me though. He almost always finds the balance of family and work. He loves what he is doing and loves to be home with his family! He got to start moonlighting in some local emergency rooms too starting in July. He enjoys that adrenaline rush! He has begun the search for his 'real job'. We are not moving again (he promised) so he is looking right in the Cedar Falls/Waterloo area. There seem to be several good opportunities so now I just have to be patient for all of the negotiations. Patience is not my strong suit, so hopefully the process will not be too painfully long!

Brian also turned 40 this past year! :)

Hoping to post smaller doses of our life in 2010!

Alana