K.E.T.S. 2.0

Growing up Eric and some of his siblings formed a club of sorts. It was called K.E.T.S.—short for Kelly, Eric, Tracie, Shannon. They would spend their days coming up with kids things to do to entertain themselves. He has fond memories of his days in K.E.T.S.

Fast forward to today… On Sundays, we don’t allow the kids to watch TV or play video games. We want them to use it as a day to spend time together, enjoying each others company, and not doing mindless vegging in front of the TV. Today they’ve been having sort of a rough time. They all think they have the best ideas, when in reality they all have the same idea—to form a club. So after multiple clubs were formed and lot of feelings hurt for being left out, mom got involved.

I told them stories that I’d heard about K.E.T.S., and how much fun it helped them to have together. So they formed a new club. The name—C.H.E.E.T.S.—short for Chandler, Harley, Eric, Emily, Tatum, Shelby. Hhhhmmmmmm. I was honored to have been included, but not sure I want to be known as a C.H.E.E.T.S.er forever. I guess if being a C.H.E.E.T.S.er means I get to be in the company of the cutest kids ever, it’ll be worth it.

Geneology—I am doing it!

This year our Stake Presidency challenged us to “Create a stake in heaven”. The goal is that every man, woman, and child over 12 would research on new.familysearch.org and find one name to do their temple work for. Chandler and I started looking together (even though he isn’t 12 yet). He is excited to turn 12 next year and be able to go do some baptisms at the temple. So I told him I’d try and find a name for him, even though he isn’t actually 12.

Well, After COUNTLESS HOURS of searching for family members who need temple work done, I DID IT!!! I found 3 people… 2 men, and 1 woman… who need all their temple work done. I can hardly believe it!!! I don’t think it’s coincidence that I was able to find 2 men, and 1 woman… 1 name for each of us. I have spent so many hours looking that I was CERTAIN I was NEVER going to find anyone. I feel SO grateful and excited to have finally found these people. After so many hours of searching, I can’t tell you if these people came from my family line, or Eric’s, but I don’t think it matters either way. The names are printed and ready to take to the temple!

As a side note, finding a name/names and completing the temple work for them was my final YW Personal Progress Project. After completing the temple work for the 3 names I found, I will have completed ALL of the Personal Project requirements to receive the Young Womanhood Recognition Award. This is a pretty major accomplishment for me. I’ve been working on it for 2 years. YW leaders are only asked to complete the 3 required value experiences for each value, as well as 3 value projects, and serve for 1 year in order to receive their award. I decided that I wanted to show the YW that if a leader can do it ALL, so can they. So I chose to complete all the same things the YW have to complete to receive their awards. I can’t wait to complete both the temple work AND my Young Womanhood Recognition. Pretty exciting stuff!

Proud mama

This week I got an email from Shelby’s teacher that said the following…

“By the way, a week or so ago, when I was on bus duty, I noticed Shelby and her brother walking toward the crossing guard with their little sisters behind. The little one seemed to be having a hard time carrying her backpack so all your other kids immediately went over to help her. Then Christian (Chandler) took her backpack and just flung it over his shoulder to carry it for her. It was just so cute to see the siblings helping each other out. :)”

It’s one thing when they are nice to each other at home. However, when they’re out and not under my thumb… That’s AWESOME!!! Needless to say, I’m a proud mom!

Dodged a bullet…

Last week we took Tatum to urgent care for an ear infection, and the Dr said, “What does your pediatrician say about this significant heart murmur?” WHAT?!?! We’d never heard a thing about it. So, of course, we FREAKED!

Monday, I took her to the pediatrician, and she was “perplexed”. She said it didn’t sound like just a normal benign murmur, and wanted her to go to a pediatric cardiologist. So we got an EKG, and chest x-ray, and went Tuesday to the same Dr. that’s doing Eva’s surgery. (Little Eva’s having balloon angioplasty this month.) He said Tatum’s murmur is basically just an echo from her very loud heart valve in her little tiny body, and not anything to be nervous about. As she gets bigger it should get less audible, but it’s nothing to worry about. Phew! It was just enough to make us freak out for a few days. These kids are gonna be the death of us.

Luckily, now we’re all healthy, happy, and a little less stressed. :)

Harley's Happy Place

Harley loves babies more than anyone I know. She'd rather sit holding one of her baby cousins than do anything else in the world. She will be a FABULOUS mother someday!

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All in good fun…

We’re so lucky to have kids who really, truly, love each other. HOWEVER… that doesn’t keep them from trying to bug the bujeeeeezers out of each other occasionally. Here is the latest attempt to drive Chandler (aka- Shinanilor Bong) crazy.

Yesterday, Harley posted this sign on her bedroom door…

Translation: “If you are a kid, come in. If you are not a kid, knock. This is for you Shinanilor Bong.”

Luckily, Chandler knows that it’s all done in good fun. Crazy kids!

Crazy times around here…

So it’s only been a week and 2 days since school started, yet it seems like it’s been weeks! Here’s an update on all the kids…

Chandler is in conditioning for flag football. He starts in the next couple weeks. So he and Eric have been running every morning at 6am. They run down to the park, practice throwing and catching the football, and race each other back home. I’m so glad to see Chandler so excited about something other than xbox. ;) I also love to watch the boys spending that time together. It’s so good for both of them. Chan’s also decided to play in the band this year. He was originally thinking he’d play the bass in the orchestra, but the idea of lugging that giant thing to and from school was a little overwhelming. So he’s decided to play percussion instead. He’ll have to start on the bell kit, but can move up to other instruments as soon as he shows he’s ready. You know that’s motivation enough for him to cruise through the bell kit book. Funny boy!

Shelby is going to have a GREAT year! She has lots of fun little girls that she previously new in her class this year. I thought that would be the highlight of her year, but it’s not. She LOVES her teacher who happens to be the perfect combination of fun loving and motivating. Shelby’s already feeling success, which is what I wanted MOST for her this year… for her to realize how smart she is, and that she can do ANYTHING! I went in to the class one day last week to help the teacher. Shelby thought I’d gone to the office to help, but I was just sitting out in the hall to work. I was SO pleased to hear her answering question after question. She’s feeling better about her academics and I LOVE THAT!!!

Harley has had tummy trouble of and on for a couple of months. However, we could always link it to having eaten too much, or being too tired, or eating junk food, or… So…

Monday: She said her tummy was sick again. So, thinking she was just tired from the 1st day of school, we sent her to bed early. Within a couple hours she was up throwing up, which she continued all night and into the morning, not being able to keep anything down.

Tuesday: I took her into the Dr. who gave her anti-nausea meds, and ordered blood test to see what was up. However, she was too dehydrated to run the test on Tuesday.

Wednesday: I took her to get her blood work done. That was a traumatic experience for all involved. They tried 3 times before finally be able to find one of her little dehydrated veins. She continued to feel terrible. She kept throwing up but wasn’t really running a fever or having any other flu-like symptoms. Very weird!

Thursday: She seemed to feel a little better and begged to go to school. So I sent her. At noon I got a call from the Drs. office telling me I needed to bring her in IMMEDIATELY, for antibiotic injections because she had an “extremely severe kidney infection”. YIKES!!!

Dr. told us that had this happened 6 months earlier they would’ve hospitalized her, because anything kidney related was immediately admitted. (Harley’s little friend was in the hospital for 6 days with the same thing back in January.) However, recent studies showed that if you treat a kidney infection with 2 antibiotic injections and 10 days of potent oral antibiotics, recovery time is the same as in the hospital. So we are following Dr.’s orders and she is a different girl. I’m so glad it was something easily treatable, and that she’s back to her crazy self! She is getting to know her teacher now, after missing 2 1/2 days of the first school week. She LOVES her, and so do I. They’ll have a fun school year.

Tatum is just happy to be such a big Kindergarten kid. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but it’s barely been an adjustment for her to go to school. I thought she’d be tired when she got home. But, NO, she’s wound up! She adores her teacher, who is FABULOUS! (Chan & Shelby had her for 1st grade.) She’s making lots of new friends, and loves learning all the new school rules. She’s adorable, as always!

Dad is still working his tail off. He’s got 2 business trips coming up this month alone. We’ll miss him while he’s gone, but he’s always sure to let us know that he’d rather be with us than on his trip. He’s a GREAT dad!

Me… well… After having Eric and Harley home most of the week last week, I’m really just starting to settle in to being a full-time stay-at-home mom. It’s very quiet around here, but I’m getting lots done. I’m also loading up my calendar with field trip dates and classroom volunteering schedules. Focusing on family this year was the best decision I could’ve made. I feel completely invested in our family, and in making our home a happy, healthy, safe, comfortable place for all of us to collapse after our crazy school/work weeks.

LIFE IS GOOD!!!