How Do you spell Jesus?

So we're in the car yesterday on our way home from school talking about spelling words. Emmy was telling Tyler that she knew two of his Super Spellers for the year. He asked if one of them was Jesus. If so, that was easy because he already knew how to spell Jesus...J E L L O. Close buddy, but not quite!

School has been going well. Our big excitement each evening is hearing who in Tyler's class got their clip moved for misbehaving Last week poor Joey got his clip moved two days in a row to red! Luckily, we have seen no clip movement for Tyler. He is pretty excited that his clip has not gotten moved (So are we!)

Tyler's first outdoor soccer game was Saturday. Secretly, we were hoping that he wouldn't like it because doing both soccer and football is turning out to be more than we bargained for. Unfortunately, he loved it. His coach told him that he "was an animal on defense". I wouldn't exactly call him an animal, but at least he kicked the ball the right direction which is more than I can say for most of his team!

Emmy's first soccer game was last night. Brian is coaching and I think he may have been running more than the girls. They all seemed to enjoy themselves and they came close to winning. Most the girls have never played before, so it's been a bit of a challenge!

Catching Up (again)

Once again, just realized it has been quite a while since I posted. We've had two teeth lost by Tyler since the May post. The first was lost as he swallowed his dinner. We had to write a note explaining to the tooth fairy that there is no tooth, but he still really wants some money! Luckily, she obliged!

We've had softball, soccer camp, cheer camp, basketball camp, and wrestling camp this summer. We had an awesome vacation to Vermont. I really need to post a separate entry on our trip with photos...but I will say at one point Emmy said "Mommy, I hate to say this, but this might be better than Disney."

School started Tuesday. Tyler is in 1st grade and Emmy in 2nd. I will also try to post pictures from the first day of school at some point.

We are now in the full swing of things with Soccer (Emmy and Tyler), Football (Tyler) and Gymnastics (Emmy). Brian will start teaching at ICC next Thursday so things could get a bit crazy.

You may ask...why am I posting after so many months? I was motivated by reading a friend from college's blog today so my goal will be to at least update weekly if not more often.

The Best Mother's Day Ever

So I just realized it has been over 4 months since i posted. It has been incredibly busy, so I guess the time just slipped away. I'll try to catch up in this post starting with yesterday and going backwards.

So yesterday was Mother's Day and I just had an awesome day. We actually started celebrating on Saturday because the kids couldn't wait. Tyler made me a great cookbook at school and Emmy made a cool totebag that we are going to use as our library bag. The best part was the card that Emmy made me. It was one of those fill in the blank sheets, but the first line was "My mother loves"...and she wrote family. I immediately started tearing up. I try so hard to make sure my kids and Brian know how important they are to me and it meant so much for her to get it!

Anyway back to my great Mother's Day. I got to spend the morning in bed reading while Brian made chocolate chip pancakes with real maple syrup (yummy). After that I just kind of picked up a bit and baked a pie for dessert. The Newman's came over for lunch and after they left we headed out to Kennel Lake to fish. I actually got the catch of the day with an 18 inch channel catfish. The kids were so excited especially Tyler because I was using his pole so he figured that it was actually his catch. We finished up the day with S'mores over the fire back at home. I couldn't have asked for a better more relaxing day!

Now to catch up on the past 4 months. We have been working a ton at our regular jobs, and other saving up for our upcoming trips. A few weeks ago we headed up to the Dells for Tyler's B-day trip. We stayed at Hotel Rome on a timeshare deal. They actually ended up paying us $1 to come and stay...not such a bad deal. Now I wouldn't recommend staying there if you have to pay, but it was awesome for free! The kids had a blast. The hotel had an indoor theme park, indoor water park and outdoor water park. Despite the fact that it was 40 degrees and rainy, we rode go-karts on a gigantic track. We also played plenty of games in the arcade, rode the indoor rides and rode on a few water slides.

The Trojan Horse was the Go-Kart track and also Brian and the kids standing by one of the biggest roller coasters in the US.

Other than that trip we haven't really gone anywhere this Spring. Mom and Dad did take all 4 kids to St. Louis in March. Other than losing Tyler at the City Museum they had a great time! Also this Spring, Emmy has learned to ride her bike. It has been within the last couple of weeks that she has gotten the confidence to ride up and down our street on her own. In fact yesterday, she rode her bike up to the street to the house of a little girl on her softball team and they ended up riding bikes together and playing. Tyler would much rather ride his scooter. Even the promise of a new bike will not increase his enthusiasm for bike riding...maybe next year!

Emmy got her ears pierced on April 17th. She and I were having a girls day out at the mall and we went into Claire's and she decided to go for it. Of course she cried before they even started, but once it was over she was really proud of herself.

Tyler went to the doctor Friday and measured in at 47.25 inches and 51 lbs. We are working hard at getting both kids to 48 inched by July, so they can ride the Alpine Slides and Ziplines in Vermont. Unfortunately, I think Tyler has overtaken Emmy by about a 1/2 inch or so, so we may have a ways to go!

I'm going to throw in a few pictures from some of our Spring Activities, but otherwise I think I'm relatively caught up. Emmy has her first Softball game tonight, but it's supposed to rain, so we'll see!

Here are Emmy and Tyler in their Easter Outfits

Tyler's 6th B-day Party

After the School Musical

All caught up...I promise to be better about updating!!!

Mammals

So last night we are sitting at wrestling practice and all of a sudden:

Emmy: Did you know that most mammals feed their babies with their bodies, but we feed our babies with big jugs of milk.

Mommy: Well, actually we can feed babies with our bodies as well. Some mommies breastfeed their babies

Emmy: What is that?

Mommy: Well you know...well ...you know how mommy has boobies? You can feed them that way.

Emmy: (Uncontrollable giggling...look of horror...)

Mommy: Aren't you going to ask if that is how I fed you?

Emmy: (Nod of the head...bigger look of horror)

Mommy: No, I used a bottle

Emmy: (Look of relief...) Is it only for poor kids who can't afford milk?

Mommy: No, Aunt Julie fed Brooklyn that way

Emmy: (More uncontrollable giggling...goes back to reading her book).

Not our best soccer weekend

So I'm not sure what happened this weekend, but things did not go especially well with soccer. First Tyler got picked to go play on another team for the first half of the game on Saturday. Now, he volunteered to do this and seemed fine through the first quarter. At the end of the first quarter he got pushed down and proceeded to do nothing the rest of the quarter. When he got switched back to his own team for the 2nd half he continued to do nothing but watch the clock and eat his shirt. After the game Brian asked him what was wrong and he said that he was upset because he had to play on another team. Really? Maybe next time you won't volunteer!!!

Tyler and I headed to the Bradley game while Emmy played soccer on Saturday. Her team got their first loss. Emmy was in goal when they gave up their only two goals. It was so sweet though because Tyler heard me talking to Brian about Emmy losing and he asked if she was "pointed" about soccer. After a few tries I finally figured out that he meant disappointed!

Now on to better news! Emmy scored her first basket on Saturday. She was so excited. I have to say that Upward Basketball is pretty amazing. Not only do the kids have to learn a bible verse each week, but they have a devotion for the parents during half-time of all the games. When a ref blows their whistle they take the time to explain to the girls why the whistle was blown and how to avoid it next time. What a great way for kids to learn about basketball and religion at the same time!!

Fight

So Tyler got in his first fight on Friday (sort of). When the kids and Brian got home from school on Friday, Tyler was really upset. I asked what was wrong and Brian said that Tyler had gotten in a fight at aftercare with a first grader. I tried to ask him what had happened, but he just stood there crying and saying that he didn't know. At this point Brian was pretty angry, so he asked Emmy what had happened. She said that Tyler and Michael were talking about wrestling and Michael asked Tyler how hard he could punch, so Ty punched him and Michael proceeded to punch Tyler back. When we heard his, I asked Tyler if he knew that you shouldn't punch people even if they asked you to and he said that he didn't know that. I have now made sure that he does know that, so this should be our one and only fight! (wishful thinking?)

My gosh! I didn't realize that it has been over a week since I posted last. I guess we got busy and I forgot! We're back in the swing of things with basketball, soccer and wrestling. Brian just started a new semester yesterday, so for the next 8 weeks he is teaching Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. I also start my busy season with at least 1-2 night meetings a week. This is when I have to become ultra organized!

Thankfully we just had a 4 1/2 day weekend which was awesome. The kids I read lots of books and got a few movies. One of the movies Tyler picked out was The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (one of my favorites!) We tried to watch it on Friday night but after the first ghost scene the kids were too scared. But, it was so funny because in the scene, the organ plays itself and Tyler asked who was playing the organ and I said that I thought it was the ghost. Tyler said "It can't be a ghost because there isn't anybody wearing a white sheet and ghosts always wear white sheets, right?" I had to explain to him that the ghost in this and other movies are sometimes invisible.

Monday we had a great day. We made birdhouses in the morning and Brian got home early and we played a couple games of Monopoly. Tyler was a Monopoly mogul...with a bad attitude I might add! He just couldn't believe how much money he had and how the rest of us didn't have any! The next game, Brian just couldn't let Emmy win and refused to stop playing until he had all of her money. Reminds me a when I was a kid and Dad wouldn't give up until he had beaten both Julie and me!

I guess I'm kind of working backwards, but Emmy had her first basketball game on Saturday. I missed it because I was with Tyler at his soccer game, but Brian said she played well. Their team scored 2 baskets. Emmy was most excited that she got to play point guard (I'm embarrassed to say, but I have no idea what the positions are in basketball).

Finally, please keep my friend Elise and her family in your prayers. Her grandpa had a stroke yesterday and it is kind of touch and go for the next couple of days!