The End of June

Nathan reappeared again at the end of June. Poor guy was jet lagged and wanted to rest but there is no rest for the weary when 3 of your kids are dying to show you the Lego Star Wars Encyclopedia that Kohen had checked out from the library. Nathan was completely smothered in kids during this "quiet time". That's pretty typical though, usually when Nathan first gets back after being gone he can't even use the bathroom without kids following him and excitedly talking his ear off. (That would be nothing new for most moms though, eh?)

Immediately up on the docket was to celebrate Aly's birthday. This year marks the last time I can fudge her actual birthday to wait for Nathan. She is too dang smart. I had been being vague and putting her off ever so slightly until we went to pick up Nathan in the airport and it was like in one instant she had suddenly put together all my vague-eries (go with it) and in distress she says, "So, I already turned 5?! When did I turn 5?!" I felt pretty bad. But don't worry, once Dad was home we did it up right.

First we met Auntie Ashley and Natalie for lunch at Red Robin. Milkshake and presents from Aunties = happiness.

Next we had a little celebration with just our fam and Pixie. This was Aly's Tangled spread, a little thrown together but she didn't notice.

My favorite idea was this gift bag. This gift was from Kohen and Kennedy so they each colored on a side of the bag and it was adorable. Kohen drew Tinkerbell, Mater and Sally from Cars. Kenna drew Aly with two of the Tinkerbell fairies, the personal touch was just too cute.

I love Aly's reaction as she opened their present, not to mention Kennedy and Kohen loving her reaction. They love Aly and they so wanted to make her day.

The biggest surprise was her Rapunzel doll. Woo hoo!

Happy 5th Birthday Aly!!!!

Every day after Nathan arrived was jam packed every minute. It's always fun but always a little tiring. When Nathan, my sisters, Shayn and my mom took the kids to Jumptime, an indoor trampoline place, EVERYONE was sweaty, exhausted, and happy. I showed up late (since my bladder is currently serving as a trampoline for a little one) and everyone was winding down from exhaustion. They had an amazing time. 

Physical activity for the kids seemed to be a theme. "The Jungle Gym" aka: Uncle Shayn, could never be within a 10 ft radius of one of the kids without them starting a wrestling match. Thank goodness he doesn't (seem to) mind!

Uncle Justin came home from school one weekend to hang out and he enjoyed Angry Birds with quite an audience. They have a surprising amount of advice...

There were also a couple of fun trips down the street for some ice cream.

 Papa John has a busy schedule up in Spokane these days, but he was able to come down several times. Also the king of Rough-housing, the kids gave Shayn a little break whenever Papa John was around to try and pummel. Especially Ander, loves to wrestle and rough-house.

So, when things weren't scheduled, impromptu get togethers happened with our 'neighbors' on our front porch.  So fun!

 If this ^ is what I always look like when I laugh then I need to make a public apology about that, and warn each of you for the future to avert your eyes, yikes! These too few evenings were so much fun. Lot's of laughing, good conversations and junk food. Blessed, good ol' American junk food. Nathan was worse than me by far. One night he came home with basically the whole rack of Little Debbie treats. Not because it's his favorite treat but because we tend to see something and think, "I haven't had that in so long!" followed by "It'll be a whole year before I can have that again!" Aaand into the cart it goes.

 Homer Simpson "mmmmm, doughnuts..."

And now I am about to divulge a huge secret I've been dealing with, to the blogosphere. I hope that you all can love and support me in spite of what you are about to hear. I have been dealing with an addiction.   It started in September of 2007. I was in Boise, Nathan was working in VA and it was a very difficult and lonely time for me. One evening I found myself in the snack aisle in Albertsons. A black bag caught my eye. And for the following 2 years I went through several bags weekly, until our overseas move threw me into withdrawals. Now I only occasionally get a bag in the mail from a thoughtful enabler

loved one.

Until we get back to the good ol' U.S.A.: 

I have it on good authority my example has spawned at least 3 other happy addicts, you are welcome ;)

And per usual, we close out the end of June with Nathan and I's Anniversary. Our 11th!! xoxo

Survival Swim

We are lucky enough to have a pool at our house in Taiwan. But with the pool comes a lot of anxiety for  me. The more mobile Ander became, the higher my anxiety grew. After a lot of research on pool and gate alarms, and even buying the Turtle Alarm (that goes on the child as a bracelet and will set off an alarm should it get wet)- I still didn't feel secure. There is so much room for human error! Then I came across a site that teaches infants and toddlers drowning prevention techniques. Well, there are lots of places that claim to teach but it all goes back to ISR and the research they have done. ISR has literally 40  years of research and they have really honed and crafted the way they teach with the goal not being a beautiful breast stroke, but rather that your child posses the skills to save themselves should they fall in the water. The teachers go through rigorous training and keep up on it yearly. It is an amazing program. I could go on and on about it. If you let me corner you I will! Anyway, I was thrilled to find Dotty who is certified in the Boise area and has been teaching 25+ years. She knows her stuff.

 It was a big commitment to get up and go almost every single day of our vacation for these 15 min lessons with Dotty, but I knew after the very first day that we had made the right choice. If you've seen Ander in action you can imagine where my worries come from. And the kids were mostly good sports about coming along for the ride. They were cute, they had fun encouraging Ander and cheering him on.

 Dotty made Nathan and I feel good by telling us how awesome Ander was doing, how unusually quick he was learning these new skills. Our little guy worked hard during his lessons, but he also seemed to love that he was learning how to move about and help himself in the water.

 Dotty had him floating by the end of the first week. She is amazing.

 Kohen making Pinecone Men to pass the time.

A stick to stick in the water as soon as the lesson is over...

Ander's favorite mid-lesson toy, the gator. He would literally try and swim with the gator in his hand. It was good for him to discover it's tricky to move through the water when your dominate hand is preoccupied.

Love this picture of Ander's stamps for doing "Big Kickers"

This video is one of the latter lessons where they have the children wear clothes -in this case, pajamas and a diaper- to simulate how if an aquatic accident were to occur, chances are they would be in some sort of clothes (the next day he wore jeans, a jacket and shoes, heavy!). What I love about this video though is that you can see that he loves it. She's all dropping him in the water and he is still all smiles. I am just SO grateful we had the opportunity to do these classes and I hope they will continue to benefit Ander for years to come.

Accomodations

Nathan brought us over and 24 hours later turned around and went home. But this year we had a unique housing situation. A house one house down from my little sisters house was put up for rent as a "vacation home" meaning we could rent week to week and it would be furnished. It was so incredibly ideal. We had our own space but we could walk over to each others houses, borrow a cup of sugar, come see the kids, or gather on the porch to hang out in the evenings. 

In our first weeks there we got to see our eldest niece Maddie's Senior piano recital which thoroughly blew my mind. It's like, you know someone is "good" but then you hear them just go to town and it almost gets me choked up just thinking how proud I am... and I'm just the Aunt!

Grandma "Pixie" was staying one house down at Ashley's but she came over many nights and would help me get the kids down which was so wonderful. Not to mention she and Kennedy would keep our stash of  granola freshly made, YUM!

And Aunties (my older sister arrived a few days after us) were always nearby and poor Uncle Shayn was always engaged in a wrestling match when he wasn't at work. He brought home giant balloons one night which were a major hit. Got all the kids properly wound up before bed just like any good uncle can do. Having our own place was so nice, but having family for neighbors was even better.

 The house we stayed in was great but the lady renting it to us was definitely  probably a lush and though you might not notice it when you first walk in, after a good look around you could tell she does her best decorating when she's 3 sheets to the wind.  First of all there were random artwork pictures everywhere. In one bathroom, for example, we have this weird ^ girl sitting there having a smoke with Marilyn Monroe as her background. Next wall over there was a scenery painting of like an old town...

 Followed by this girl power Joan of Arc copper picture thing. All squished on the walls of a very small bathroom.
Besides all of the "eclectic" art work thrown up on every inch of wall space, there was this creepy picture of a boy. I actually liked it at first. Until I realized he was always watching me.

 No matter where I went in the room, there he was, staring at me.

 Those creepy eyes that just follow you everywhere. Like on Scooby Doo, how the bad guy is always watching from behind the eyes...

 SO CREEPY!!!!!

 It got to the point where the picture was creeping everyone out so bad that we finally had to just take him down and keep him out of sight.  So weird.

Um, hi :)

Be honest now, did you think I was done blogging? Did you think over time my blog would drop further and further down your "recently posted" list? Ah well, I was just having a little break. Truth be told, during our 6 weeks in the States I was quite literally too busy to watch my usual summertime shows, waste time on Facebook, or even blog. But now we are back home in Taiwan not even a full day yet and I am ready to get back at it. 

 On Monday we had a false start to our trip when we showed up to the airport only to discover our flight time had been changed and we had not been notified, therefore missing our flight. Thankfully they had record of not being able to get a hold of us and due to Nathan's status (meaning how much he flies) they were soon bending over backwards to try and get us on Tuesdays flight with Business upgrades. My aching pregnant body was ever so grateful.
Not to mention we got to squeeze in one more day of our vacation which was an unexpected treat.

The trip home was as good as can be expected. It was a solid 27 hours door to door and we were stuck in Japan for a 4 hour layover after having gone Boise to San Fran, 2+ layover there, then 10 hour flight to Japan. Our bodies all thought it was well after midnight and after playing around in the "Family Room" in the United lounge for 2 hours, I buckled Ander into his stroller and made everyone lay down and they were all out in moments. Then I was stuck pacing around since the chairs are all insanely hard in there and I could not get comfy. Oh well.
Not sure if you can tell from the picture but Aly had spent the better part of 20 min. massaging the complimentary lotion from the long flight into her face, neck and ears, which all immediately turned bright red, swelled and got real itchy. Luckily I had Benedryl but you can still see the aftermath of her in flight spa treatment today.
Anyway, just thought I would let everyone know we made it home safely and I am going to get myself organized and be posting again in no time!