I Got In Trouble

Last night while I was out taking Millie on a walk, David sent me a message that he needed to talk to me when I got home.  I was thinking this was about some bill or his teacher evaluation packet, but when I got back he showed me my blog and how long it had been since I've updated.  So I guess I'm going to do that now...

David:  He's been working really hard with his groups trying to rebuild the orchestra programs here.  He got back the numbers from one of his schools and looks like they are going up for next year!  In January he took one of his groups to Disneyland and they had a fantastic time.  They spent 2 days in the park, 2 days at the beach, performed in the park, did a recording session in the actual Disney recording studios, and ate at Medieval Times!  David is going to try to take at least one of his groups every year, which will be a lot easier from here on out because now he knows what he's actually doing...It's been a very trying year (the first year at a new school always is) but I think overall the program is stronger because of him.

Abby:  I keep myself pretty busy.  I am constantly dropping off and picking up kids and cleaning the house.  I am also the ward choir director and David's secretary (basically helping him organize his life between working at 3 different schools and teaching private lessons and taking care of bills and every other random thing that pops up).  Since David works so much during the day I am also kind of the one in charge of the yard so I've been busy getting it all cleaned up from the winter!  I really don't mind any of that, though.  I like spending time with my kids, I like organizing, and I actually do like puttering around my yard!

Asher: He has been growing and learning so much this year.  He loves school and his teacher and she tells us that Asher has been having no problems keeping up with the rest of the class even though he's really young for his grade.  His teacher wants all the kids in the class to learn how to tie their shoes this year so I worked with Asher a lot on the and he did it!  She gave him a little certificate and I let him pick out whatever prize he wanted (under $5) and he picked an Icee.  I really hated teaching it, but we made it through!  I think Asher is starting to really like it here.  He still mentions our other house and his other friends every once in awhile, but he has made some really good friends here and his cousin is at our house 5 times a week (I watch him after he gets done with Kindergarten) and Asher loves it so much!  It's going to be weird next fall going from having 4 kids at home in the afternoon to having 2 kids!  Asher is really excited about 1st grade because he really wants to have lunch at school.  David's brother Brian gave Asher a Star Wars lunchbox last year and he's just been itching to take use it.  He really is the best brother and loves hanging out with the girls and is usually really good about helping me around the house.  He does have bad days, but overall he's a really sweet kid.

Mia:  This girl keeps learning words like nobody's business!  She is still very stubborn, so it has to be her idea, but when she's in the mood she will say any word I speak to her!  She has a bit of a temper and can throw quite a tantrum, especially when she's hungry.  Speaking of being hungry, she eats all the time!  Asher is by far my worst eater, and Mia is definitely my best.  Mia will eat as much as Asher and Ava combined.  It is so amazing to have a child that just eats what I put in front of her and I don't have to worry about her starving herself.  I think she had a nice long talk with her Great Grandma Haroldsen in heaven because she just loves anything that is pretty.  If I'm wearing a shirt that has any kind of detail on it she'll point to it and tell me it's pretty.  If I put a bow in her hair she'll tell me it's pretty.  If she sees a flower she'll tell me it's pretty.  If I'm wearing any kind of jewelry she'll tell me it's pretty.  If I paint her toenails she'll tell me it's pretty.  She loves pretty things and that is one thing that I always loved about my Grandma!

Ava:  She just keeps getting more and more spunky!  From the minute she wakes up she is laughing and running and babbling away.  She always makes me smile and I love watching her prance her way around the house!  As soon as I walk in their room in the morning she is smiling and laughing and pointing at Mia saying "Sissy!"  Then she'll point to me saying "Mama!"  Then she'll run out of the room looking for Asher and she'll shout out his name when she finds him.  Whenever she sees someone she knows she'll yell out their name and then start running around in circles.  It makes me smile every time!  When she gets done with nursery she'll start asking "Where's Asher?" and will make me walk around with her until we find him.  She thinks Asher and Daddy are just about the coolest people on the planet.  She loves running around the house, walking backwards, spinning in circles, chasing Mia, just trying to enjoy everything that she can!  Also, she has the softest skin ever.  It is just like silk.  I have no idea how she got so lucky or how to keep it that way but I am always rubbing her face because it's so soft!

Waiting for Dad to finish his lessons.  He teaches them in our living room because we have no furniture downstairs so we hide out in Asher's room until he's done.

Asher and Sorren.  Buddies.

My kids think that if anyone is lying down then everyone else needs to pile on top of them.

One of the rare times when David actually smiled when I was taking a picture!  Probably because he's with his best buddy. ;)

They snuggle together a lot.

During conference.  It's a good thing they publish the talks later because I only heard about 1/2 of it...But look how good they're playing together!

Sunday night making cookies!  When I have my life together this is our Sunday night activity.

This one is my buddy.  She loves to be with Mama.  All the time.

My mom has an organ in her living room and they thing it is the best toy ever!

He did it!

I got their haircut and was terrified her curls would be gone.  Apparently I didn't have anything to worry about!

David had a birthday!  I had a super awesome date planned, but the morning of his birthday he hurt his back pretty bad so we had to postpone.  I will say when we actually did go on the date he really liked it.

This is why I can't do laundry when they're awake.

First haircut!  They both cried, but once the lady turned on a movie on her iPad they calmed down enough for them to do it.

No more mullet!  It was pretty bad and now she has a cute little bob!

Such a cheese!  And she has the biggest sweet tooth!  (that's a cookie in her hand)

Getting the Icee after learning to tie his shoes!

Some of the Mitchell cousins.  They all really love to play together!

I love that my kids are friends as well as siblings.

Valentine's Day!

This girl knows how to relax!  She loves to lounge, lay on pillows, and wrap herself in blankets.

David's parents spent the afternoon with us!  It was so fun to have them here!

They love to color all the time (especially Mia).  And this picture of Ava makes me laugh every time I see it!  She's going to hate it when she's older but I love it!

Rough Winter

I had to make a post about how ridiculous our winter has been so far.  Starting the week before Thanksgiving, at least one person in our house has been sick until today!  Today was the first day in over a month where I didn't have to wipe a nose, listen to coughing, have someone throw up, or treat a fever.  Granted, there are still 2 people in the house taking antibiotics, but they are both on the tail end of the treatment so basically all the symptoms are gone.

Here's my count of what we've been dealing with the last 5 weeks (in no particular order): 2 cases of strep throat, 1 case of hives, 4 rounds of antibiotics, 2 cases of pink eye, 1 ear infection, 3 cases of stomach flu, 2 trips to the urgent care, disinfecting the entire house about 7 times, and countless colds, coughs, fevers, and congestion.

I keep hearing from other people that it's not just us, that everyone is getting sick, but I don't know of anyone that's had it quite as bad as us.  We seem to (maybe?) be getting over things. Knock on wood, but hopefully we can actually enjoy Christmas! 

Kids

I just wanted to write down a few things about my kids so I could remember it for the future!

Ava:

• Such a goof!  She basically always looks like she's doing something naughty and is super proud of it.  And when she is doing something naughty she has a certain laugh she always does that make me laugh and so I can't get mad at her!
• Has spent a good portion of the last month sick.  We all have, but especially her.  It's been a tough winter already. :(
• Loves to run around the house at full speed!  I can always tell when it's her coming down the hallway.  She doesn't do things half way!
• Constantly pushes things around the house.  Her favorite thing is my laundry basket.  She loves having the hard floors so she can do this.  She also pushes chairs, step-stools, boxes, and their big toy car around.
• She is so full of life and joy!  Except when she isn't.  She tends to run hot and cold and has been like that since she was a newborn.  The other day I had to run something in to the office at one of David's schools and had to take all the kids with me.  Luckily I got to park on the opposite side of the building so I got to walk all the way through to get to the office.  On the way down the hall Ava was yelping and laughing because she loved the echo!  And there's a big hill in the hall that she thought was AMAZING and so fun to walk up and down!  What she did not love was when I made her leave the hill.  She threw a tantrum so hard that I couldn't even hold her because of all the thrashing.  I had Asher try to get Mia to walk down the hall, but because Ava was screaming it upset Mia and she cried too.  This was all while the janitor was standing in the hall watching and classrooms were full of students.  I tried to get out of the building as fast as I could, but the last 20 feet was me holding a crying Mia and dragging Ava out of the building by one arm.  But then we'll be in church and she will be laughing hysterically while trying to jump over things on the floor!  She definitely keeps me on my toes!
• Whenever she poops, she'll come up to me and hold her diaper while saying "poop".  Asher didn't start doing that until he was about 3....
• Screams all the time.  Happy, sad, excited, hungry, frustrated, it doesn't matter!  She is always screaming.
• Such a Daddy's girl!
• Does NOT like nursery.  Or babysitters.  Or new people in general.  This is something that all my kids have trouble with, although Asher is so much better about it now.  I'm hoping that now they're in nursery and we're going to have to use babysitters when we have rehearsal that she'll get more comfortable with it.
• Just a fun girl that I love to watch and play and talk with!

Mia:

•  Still sucks her thumb, but only when she's tired.  I will probably have to address that soon, but I secretly love it because I think it's so cute...
• My little mommy.  If she finds a diaper or garbage on the ground, she'll bring it to me and then walk me to the garbage.  If I forget to put a bag in the garbage can, she'll stay there and grunt until I change it.  LOVES babies and cuddles all her dolls.  If she sees me cleaning things up, she'll start cleaning too.  If she has a runny nose, she'll get a wipe and give it to me and point at her nose.  If she finds a bow on the ground she'll give it to me and then pat Ava's head so I can put it on her.  Stuff like that all day long!  She has caught on to how things are and helps me remember!
• Quite a stubborn little child.  She has a way she wants things to be and if I don't do it she gets very upset! She always wants me to read the book she picked out first and she wants to have this certain sippy cup.  It gets a little frustrating at times.
• Mama's girl.  A lot.
• Has such pretty curls!  I really need to get both of their hair trimmed but I can't bring myself to do it because I don't want to lose their curls!
• Makes the funniest faces.  Pretty much for all of bath time we just make faces at each other.
• Takes awhile to get used to people/places, but once she does she's ok on her own.  
• Has the cutest little waddle!  I always put her in the pants that have something on the bum because it accentuates her waddle.  I love it!
• Loves all the girly stuff.  She always wants to try on shoes, wear necklaces, and is always saying things are "pretty".  I painted both their toenails once, and now every so often she'll run into the bathroom, dig out the fingernail polish remover, hand it to me and sit on the ground pointing at her toes.  Once I take the old color off she'll keep pointing at her toes until I've put a new color on.  

Both those girls are so funny to watch!  They keep me entertained and VERY busy.  But it's so fun to watch them learn and grow!  They love being together and if I do something with one, I have to do it with the other.  They're pretty great to have around!

 

At the doctors before getting a crap ton of shots.

Maknig faces!  They love bubble bath.

Ava was tired and laid down with her blanket.  Mia, who was not tired one bit, wanted to do it just for fun!

Just sitting on Dad's box of music. 

They were the cutest little bugs!  I may have to make them do it again next year because I loved it so much!

David says they take after me in one big way, they love books!  I read probably 20 books a day with them.  They'll bring me one and once we finish that one they'll keep bringing me another till we've read them all.

 

I think she loved that pile of leaves more than anyone else!

I'm finally getting them trained to say "cheese" and smile for pictures!  Also, the outfit of hers has a crab and the bum and I love watching it waddle as she walks around!

Asher:

• Such a sweet boy.  He loves his sisters so much and loves playing with them.  He loves to make the people around him happy.  When we had people over for Thanksgiving, he got out David's big tub of popcorn to share with all his cousins!  He just wants to make everyone happy!
• Has no trouble making friends.  It doesn't matter where we are, if there are kids close to his age around he will try to make friends with them.  If we go to McDonald's and he sees kids on the playground he'll tell me he's so glad he has friends there, even if he's never seen them before!
• Is  turning into a bit of a singer.  His Kindergarten teacher told me he sings on his way to each of their different activities and it makes her smile every time.  I recently got called as the choir director in our ward.  David goes mainly to help me translate what is in my head to actual words and to help the 2 other tenors (teenage boys) learn their part, so our kids come too.  After the first week I asked Asher if he sang.  He said no, because he didn't have any music.  So the next week I gave him some music and he actually sang!  And offered to give the opening prayer!  He is also getting good at singing along to the movies the girls watch like Moana and Sing.
• Learning so much.  I recently went to his parent-teacher conference.  She told me he is doing fabulous, especially in math.  I was worried about him starting school so young (he only turned 5 three weeks before school started), but he is thriving!  We got a letter about a month ago saying he was reading below grade level, so that made me a little concerned.  I asked his teacher about it and she got a very exasperated look on her face.  She said it was a new test that they had to do on chromebooks.  Asher's school is a Title 1 school (meaning most kids that go are pretty poor) so some of them hadn't even seen a computer before and were trying to touch the screen instead of use the mouse.  She said they only had a few seconds to answer before it switched to the next question, and some students were still trying to find the mouse on the screen before it switched to the next question!  One student couldn't hear the questions and so was just answering randomly.  One student, who came in to her class able to read, failed the test completely.  So she said basically ignore his score on that because he's doing great!  
• Loves to draw.  This is pretty new and he's never shown much interest in it until recently.  I am encouraging it and love seeing what he comes up with!
• Still misses our old place.  But he's been playing with friends outside of school and church more in the past couple of weeks so I hope that helps him feel a little more settled in.
• Does really well with explanations of things and hates when I tell him to do something just because.  If I remember to talk to him about things, he will usually do what I ask.  Like when I say he shouldn't wear his white gloves because they aren't as warm as his black gloves and I don't want his hands to get cold, that works much better than me saying he has to wear the black gloves.  Unfortunately I am not an infinite well of patience and sometimes lose my temper instead of taking the time to listen to him.  Although I guess I'm not the only parent who does that.
• He's just a fun, sensitive kid who is a wonderful big brother.  Still a Mama's Boy, still the pickiest eater alive, but I'm sure glad we have him. ;)

Coloring one morning before the girls got up.

He was so excited about this!  I ran into many issues, but he thought it was great all the same.

Watching squirrels in our backyard.  All my  kids love to do this!

 

He's a lover, not a fighter.  That's for sure!

 

And finally, David's beautiful turkey on Thanksgiving!

Fall

Well life doesn't seem to be slowing down much!  Things are just as crazy as ever.  David still loves his job.  He gets a little more sleep because school here starts an hour later than in Utah, so when he gets home at night he doesn't instantly fall asleep on the couch!  He is a lot busier because on top of being a full time teacher, he has taken on 9 (so far) private cello students.  Most days he teaches two 45 minute lessons between 5 and 7 while the kids and I hang out in my bedroom.  We hang out there instead of downstairs because we still haven't quite gotten furniture for down there so it's just a big open room that's kind of cold and with nowhere to sit.  We will be fixing that soon!  Until then we watch Coco on David's laptop and I try to keep all the crumbs from their crackers from getting into my sheets. David also helps out with the local youth symphony and he'll be playing with the Idaho Falls Symphony starting in November!  I will also be playing with them, but I don't start with them until December. So yes, the only time David gets to really see the kids is on the weekends right now.

Asher is (I think) liking school.  It's like pulling teeth to get him to tell me anything, but he quite often spouts out random things he learned and tells me all the sight words he knows so at least some of it is sinking in!  He also has 2 little friends in his class that are also in our ward and also ride the bus with him.  It's kind of funny to see the three of them squished into one seat, but they are all such nice kids and I am soooo thankful he found friends so quickly.  

Ava and Mia are turning into little talking machines!  It was like a light switched on and they started picking up words right and left.  It's funny to see how talking helps them express their personalities. Ava's favorite words are daddy, cracker, and rawr (which she does almost every time she see any animal).  Mia's favorite words are doggy (she LOVES animals), woof, and pretty (most often she points at her toes while she says this because I painted them once just to entertain her while David was teaching a lesson and now if the polish comes off she makes me re-do them).  

That's pretty much it.  We are busy and I have a hard time focusing on anything because I feel like I have a million things going on at once.  I told David that I feel like I don't get anything done even though I stay busy all day long just because I get one thing done and five more things pop up that need to get done.  But we're making it through and are looking forward to a fun holiday season!  Here are a bunch of pictures of things we've done this fall:

I finally hit my limit with running around the halls with them so David and I took them to nursery 2 weeks early and sat in with them.  They did ok for the first half and then broke pretty bad the last half.  Church is hard on the little ones.  Hopefully next week goes better!

My sisters, mom and I all took a painting class.  It was a one time class and we were all very stressed out about how our paintings would turn out, but it was fun!

Don't judge how we look, we had been there almost 4 hours and it was past most of our bedtimes!  But we did it!

I love Mia's curls!  Ava's hair also has some curl, hers is just shorter so you can't see it as well.

Asher loves having buddies.  I came out from cleaning the bathroom and they were sitting there like this!

I like her!

This is how Ava lets me know she's tired.  She get a blanket and lay down on a pillow.

Ava likes to join in on the big boys play time.

I took my kids to a pumpkin picking farm!  They had a lot of fun, the weather was nice, and I was exhausted by the time we got home!  All my kids' favorite spot was the corn pit.

Asher and his cousin Sorren

Some days I don't want to try and keep my kids all quiet while David teaches lessons in our living room so I take them to Arctic Circle where they can eat and be loud and have fun!

Millie is such a good dog for these kids.  She lets them climb all over her, harass her, and "lets" them feed her their food. ;)

They're cute.

Their favorite game is sitting in this old chair and having Asher spin them around.

Piggies!

Sometimes Asher just wants a buddy so he'll grab one of the girls and put them on his lap while he watches TV.

Cuddling in their blankets before bedtime.

I bought this skeleton as a Halloween decoration.  Asher turned it into a toy named "Skelly" and anytime I try to use it as a decoration, one of my kids make me take it down so they can play with it.

At a carnival one of David's schools put on.  David ran an instrument petting zoo.  It was actually pretty popular!

One of the perks of moving here was Asher got to play soccer with his cousins!  They are all within a year of each other and have lots of fun getting into trouble.

My brother coached the team.  Asher isn't really an athlete and hardly touched the ball, but he tried really hard and had fun!

Post Moving Thoughts

Well it's been almost 2 months since our move to Idaho so I thought I make a small post about how things have been going so far!  

The first thing that I love is having more space.  It doesn't feel like we're living in a storage unit!  Our last place had no storage room so every nook and cranny was crammed with stuff.  Now our closets can actually be used for clothes, I don't have to keep my sewing machine in our room, I'm not afraid of things falling on top of me when I open the girls' closet, and I just feel like there's more room to breathe!  Our upstairs looks pretty good and normal, but our downstairs still has some boxes and looks very empty because we haven't gotten furniture to put down there so it's basically a big playroom.  Eventually we'd like to get a nice sectional for down there, put our TV down there, find a piano and make the upstairs living room a sitting room/music room.  

It's also very nice having a backyard because I can put Millie out there if I know we're having company over and I can let the kids roam around back there without getting worried they're going into the street.  The backyard has been a huge project that I've kind of taken on while David has been at work.  About every 3 days I have to go pick apples up off the ground (which wouldn't be so bad if the apples were edible, but the previous owners didn't do any pest control so the apples are pretty wormy) and I try to pick up pine cones from our huge pine tree.  Hopefully we'll be able to have the power company come take the trees out for us soon which will help our yard be much easier to take care of!  About 2 weeks ago I did lots of preparation to reseed the lawn and now it's starting to sprout!  I was so excited when I saw that!  It'll probably take a few years to really make the lawn nice, but we're willing to put in the work.  It's actually really satisfying seeing something good come of hard labor!

Something I've noticed for Asher and me is that our skin is much softer.  We both have really sensitive skin and the really hard mineral Utah water didn't do us any favors.  For about 2 weeks after we moved both of us had really tough skin that I was worried we'd have to go see a doctor about, but I think our bodies were just getting rid of all the junk because once our skin got used to Idaho we both had much softer skin!  I don't break out hardly at all and my skin is much less oily.  David couldn't even tell that I wasn't wearing any makeup one day!  I don't know how much he recognizes that normally, but it made me feel good!  So my skin is grateful we moved to Idaho.

I've been able to do a lot more with my family.  That was always a motivating factor to moving back to Idaho.  Asher loves his cousins and has especially loved that I watch his cousin who is his age after Kindergarten so he gets to have a friend over for about 4 hours every day!  It's also nice that a lot of the activities are much cheaper here so we can afford to do more things.

David loves his job here.  He loves teaching at a high school and with a program that has some amazing players.  He loves being able to go in depth into the music with them.  He also feels so much support from parents and the community, something he didn't have a lot of in West Jordan.  He has lots of projects in the works and is excited for this year.  He also already has 5 private cello students, and we've done zero advertising for it!  We tried pretty hard to get David's name out in Utah but nothing ever really panned out.  It's nice to have that little extra money every week!  I think we're actually making more money now than when we lived in Utah, not something you hear every day!

A couple less positive things are things we kind of expected, but don't make it much easier.

About a week after we moved into the house Asher asked me when we were moving back to our regular house so he could see his friends there.  And he still asks me that about once a week.  It breaks my heart every time I have to explain to him that this is our new house and we're not moving back.  And every time he tells me he misses Monty and that he misses our regular house I have a moment of thinking "Did we do the right thing?"  I know it was a good move for us and it was the right thing to do, but it's been very hard on Asher.  He has already made 2 good friends who are in our ward, all in the same class at school, and all ride the bus together so at least there's that!  It's taking some time, but he's slowly getting used to living here.

One last thing is that David doesn't get to see his family as much.  When we lived in Utah David's brother lived right down the street.  I was able to see them a lot because I watched their little boy and it was kind of fun to be able to know what's going on in their life.  David also has a Grandpa and Grandma that still live there and lots of extended family.  We haven't been back to Utah yet, but will hopefully be able to see some more of David's family soon!  His nephew just started school at BYU-Idaho and we've been able to spend some time with him, and that's been really fun.  We've been saying it for years, but we may just have to crack down and budget out a trip to his parents house soon!  Especially before the girls get too old and we have to pay for 2 more plane tickets...

Overall things are going pretty good.  It's been crazy busy with David starting his new job, having to juggle 3 schools and building up programs at each, Asher starting school, me watching my nephew, the girls getting into everything, and everything that comes with owning a house!  I go to bed every night exhausted and wake up every morning stiff, but it's a good feeling knowing that things are finally starting to look up for us (knock on wood...)

We have a park just down the street from us, so it's nice to take a quick trip there when kids are getting grumpy!

Piggies!  I had to wait until her hair filled in on one side, but it finally did!

Ava can be so annoying sometimes....she loves to chase Mia around and tackle her!  Sometimes Mia laughs and thinks it's hilarious, sometimes she does not like it and cries.

Asher and Ava.  These girls still love their big bro.

I don't remember if I posted this or not, but here's a first day of school picture!  It's like pulling teeth to get him to tell me anything about school but I think he likes it!

Asher and his cousin Sorren.  Asher loves having Sorren over and I think Sorren is helping Asher adjust to the move.  They play together so well and hardly ever fight.  They are in different elementary schools, but will be able to go to school together once they hit middle school!