Not only is groundhog day a great movie, but it is often how I feel.
This was the first week of our three older kids not being in daycare and Naomi and I both forgot they didn't have school on the 2nd, even though we had work. That was a fun day, but gratefully Grandma Puppies came to save the day.
With 2018 being well underway it will be fun to see what great adventures lie ahead!
It wasn't Macaulay Culkin that made the movie, it wasn't the slap stick comedy, or the great story, it was the music. It brings back feelings from my own childhood. Memories of Christmas past with my own children when they were smaller and they awaited bright eyed and bushy tailed in the early AM with anticipation of the day to come. With that in mind, I am going to write our 2017 Family Christmas letter. I know I suck, I haven't written a Christmas card in years, but I am hoping that this family blog can serve as a suitable replacement.
2017 was a very busy year for our little family. Hyrum turned 10, Adele 7, Maddy 6, and Zoe 4. This year the kids have tried both gymnastics and Kung Fu. It was fun seeing them run around, do performances, and develop new skills and make new friends.
One of the most memorable moments was watching Naomi tear up at Hyrum's school Christmas performance. He has never been engaged with music at church or home, and to see him take his choir performance seriously really touched her. Now mind you, getting to the performance was an event unto itself. I was told a new family in our congregation needed help moving that night, my wife had just got off from work and was racing there. I had the children and had gotten home, thrown clothes on them and raced out the door. I have to say it was pretty epic since Hyrum has sweat pants and a Minecraft button up shirt on. But /Mom had gone to the store and gotten him slacks and a nice gray button up shirt. He changed in the car as I dropped him off and took one of the kids to do the move. But he looked much better in his performance dressed up since he was in the front row :-).
Now having 3 girls we have seen a vast range of emotions throughout this year. In fact their swings are well captured by the Supreme's song lyric, "There ain't no mountain high enough, ain't no valley low enough". Oddly enough I felt the urge to validate that it was a Supreme's song, and while Diana Ross of the Supremes did sing it in 1970 it was actually written in 1966 by Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson. That is neither here or there but back to the girls.
Madeline (who is adamantly preferring to be called Maddy) started kindergarten and is doing well. Although just having come from preschool last year with naps, she still hasn't gotten over needing them. Her teacher said it is not uncommon to have Maddy just fall asleep at her desk. During parent teacher conference she encouraged me to help Maddy get to bed earlier. I could not help but chuckle as I reminisced over our nightly routine, it goes something like this.
7:30 pm: Parents announce the arrival of bed time is nigh
7:31 pm: Unanimous whining among the 4 children.
8:00 pm: Everyone is unplugged, we read scriptures and say prayers and get everyone off to brush teeth and head to bed.
8:30 pm: Lights are out and Naomi and I feel like we are in the clear
8:.33 pm: Adele comes crying into our room saying Maddy and Zoe won't let her sleep.
8:35 pm: I drag myself up and discuss with the girls what feels like a hostage situation. They make demands like, water, additional tuck ins, and cuddles.
8:45 pm: Having given into the demands I go back to bed in hopes that it will be the end of the situation.
8:50 pm: Maddy & Zoe creaks open our door and sneaks into our bed.
8:55 pm: I tell them I am awake and they have to go back to bed.
8:55 pm: Instantly Maddy and Zoe are screaming and crying about who knows what.
8:56 pm: I make a deal with the the girls that if they will wait till mom and dad are asleep they can sneak into our room.
Between 8:57 pm and 9:05 pm: The girls come to "check" on mom and dad. Each time with me saying go back to bed.
9:15 pm: Naomi is sawing logs, and I am tired enough that I pretend to fall asleep so they just sneak in my bed and are laying either under me over me or spread eagle so that I cannot go to sleep
As this was playing in my head I decided the easiest way out of this conversation about my lack of parenting skills was to just smile, acknowledge I was given a commitment to get my girl to bed earlier and thanked the teacher for her feedback...
Now Adele is an amazing kid in every way. You would have thought I walked on water based on her review from parent teacher conference. She was always bright and cheery, super helpful, she was kind to everyone, and after everyone in the class was swapped out being next to a kids that smelt bad, she was put there and she never said a bad thing about the kid. But I am a little disappointed that she is stuck to the smelly kids. But moving on, she does so many things well, but sometimes at home she has a little harder time. She drew this amazing picture, which is scanned below. She handed that to one of the siblings, which in turn ended with a "little" drama.
In short she is super kind, helpful, amazing, and then she just has a nasty streak of the nasty's from time to time.
Zoe, ah Zoe. I had an opportunity to take her to the park one day. It was sunny, and the sunlight seemed to dance off of her sandy brown hair. As she played, I started to cry, being the sentimental type, thinking about how someday she would grow up find someone, get married, and not be the bundle of sunshine that she is. She is usually to cheerful and ready for most any adventure. Now throughout the year, with all of our kids being in childcare, having access to YouTube, and well just being the sponges they are, we have had to work on not swearing. At one point, after many family night lessons, Zoe was really upset with mom, and then proceeded not to swear, but to give my sweet wife the one finger salute...Well let's just say it is work and progress. As a side note I thought it would be funny to get a family Christmas card with our whole family flipping the bird, but I decided that may send mixed messages to the kids. But one night while discussing where the kids had heard the words the "fudge" moment came where my kids could rat out a friend, blame it on a video, and much to my surprise Hyrum stated, "Every time mom is on the phone for work she always swears". Oh, well damned if I do, damned if I don't :-)
For Naomi she has been especially busy with work. She is the assistant general manager of the company. In addition to work Naomi has been a weekly teacher in Gospel Principals for the last two and a half years at church and the ward choir director. And on top of all that she is an amazing mom always helping the kids, doing her visiting teaching, and still helping others. Her and the kids just took up piano lesson. I am very excited because growing up I always heard my family playing music and it is awesome to see the kids and Naomi go and practice. It brings a great feeling in the home, much better than having the TV on.
Now me, I have been happy for almost the entire year :-) I still work at Boeing (been there since Sept. 2015) in their finance group for supplier management. Our offices moved from Bothell WA to Everett, which is a much better commute. I feel like I learn so much everyday and I work with some really great people. I also have a side business doing financial services for companies, anything from start up financial projections, to book keeping, and loan packaging. I am so grateful for the several people who help me in that. I am blessed with people who are so kind and helpful. I also serve at church as an auditor of finances and as a secretary to our Bishop. I didn't realize how much time and effort it takes to run a ward, but I appreciate all the amazing men and women who donate their time and energy to help others. While my family is taking piano lessons I have been geeking out with a new store called Funko in Everett. They make pop culture toys. I am a sucker for a lot of the anime cartoons. Things like Erased, Mushi-shi, and My Hero Academia are some that I have really enjoyed.
This year we bought a property in which we are looking forward to moving to around June 2018. It will be 1/2 acre in the city of Snohomish, a little south and east of where we live today. The short of the story is we bought it in hopes we could repair the trailer that was there, but it was too broken down, we wanted to build on it, but due to wetlands we can't, so we wanted a bigger trailer, and we were told no, so we are going to replace the trashed out one with a new similar sized model, and we were just told our permits were approved last week. It sure has been a learning experience but we are excited. We are going from a less than 1000 sqft apartment with 1 bath (for 6 people) to ~1600 sqft with 2 bathrooms. We have seen a lot of potty dances in our house. And between you and me it does not always end well, if you know what I am saying...
To specifically call out all the amazing family, friends, church members, and co-workers who have loved, supported, and put up with me and my family this year would be too innumerable to count and give sufficient thanks. Just know, that we love you, we are grateful for you, and look forward to being with you again.
