Starting School and September CA trip- NorCal

The three oldest girls began school at a local Classical Charter School this September.  Kayla is in 5th grade, Elise is in 3rd, and Ava is in 1st.  

 

Words cannot express how hard it was to let go of homeschooling, while at the same time how exciting it was to say hello to a new chapter.  The girls are all enjoying the new school, and I am enjoying some time to spend with the littlest ones without the extreme pressure of all the schooling on top of it.  

And just a week after we started the kids in school, we headed out to California to take the family vacation that we had planned months and months earlier.  We packed up children and school work and flew first to Sacramento.  

We met our dear friends at In-N-Out Burger to begin our trip and then headed to their place to hang out for awhile.  It was so good to see them and catch up on life and let the kids play together.  

There's so many of them now!  

Next we headed up the hill to my grandma's house.  

What a wonderful, familiar sight.  

I've been coming to this cabin for as long as I can remember.  

And every time it is peaceful and wonderful.  It is another home.  

And it truly was for Chris and I as we moved in with my grandparents for several months about a year and a half after we got married.  It was a nice time filled with many great memories made with grandma and Kayla when she was just a baby.  

So we settled right in and it felt just like home.  

Unfortunately, the travel left some of the kids completely wiped.  Kolbe spent a couple days feeling out of it and just sleeping a lot.  I don't blame him.  Every time I come to Grandma's, I feel like I can finally just let out a huge breath and all the stress that just weighs me down and take a long, peaceful nap in the mountains.  

We had to visit some old friends from the Foresthill Catholic Community.  Ron and Marcia are always so hospitable and have us over and let our kids swing on their crazy swing and look for frogs in their pond.  

 

 

Pat and Eric and Becky and family joined us too to hang out some more.  It was a fun night filled with laughter and good food.  

When I was a girl, I got to get my ears pierced with Grandma.  So I asked Grandma if she'd be interested in coming with Kayla to get hers done.  Luckily for us, Grandma's hair stylist does ears, so she was able to pierce Kayla's ears and it was hardly a trip and Grandma was able to come.  

 

A little hesitant.  

But she did great and said it didn't even hurt.  

All grown up

The girls experienced a little piece of tradition one of the nights we spent at Grandma's.  We brought out the old BINGO game.  When I was little, Grandma and Grandpa would bring BINGO and big bags filled with candy for each of us to win when we eventually got our BINGO.  We didn't do the whole big bag of candy thing as their is always plenty of dessert at Grandma's, but we did play a rousing game of BINGO.  

It's a beautiful thing to see your kids doing the things you remember doing as a kid and enjoying so much.  I may have teared up a little.  

We took a trip up to town to the cemetery to say hello to Grandpa as well.  

Rest in peace. We love you.  

And before we left for the next leg of our CA trip, we made Grandma take a bunch of pictures with us.  She is alllllmooooost 90 in these pictures.  Just one month shy of it.  Doesn't she look amazing?  She is.  

All the earrings ladies!

A wonderful visit in Northern California.  Thank you, everyone, for all the wonderful fun and new memories made together.  We miss you!  See you next time (or in Colorado if you want to take your own trip!)

Cincinnati Easter- Part 4- Visiting (Great) Grandma

Chris' grandma is living in an assisted living facility after a few falls.  She's recovering and her body is ready to do physical therapy to help her re-learn to walk again which is good news. At the moment she's mostly in a wheelchair now though and can't easily leave the facility to visit outside. 

We were fortunate enough to be able to visit her several times though which was a wonderful blessing.  She is a beautiful woman and is always so filled with joy.  I sure wish we lived closer so that the kids could get to know their great grandma better and see her much more often.  There is just nothing in the world like grandmas.

Kolbe made fast friends with this sweet guy in a wheelchair when we hung out in one of the common areas of the assisted living facility.  

selfie time

Grandma was cracking Kolbe up, tickling him, and cooing.  He made her laugh with his silly antics too (you can see a snippet at the end of the video).

One of the days we visited, Kayla recited her Months of the Year poem for Grandma. 

 Kolbe was, well, Kolbe.  

          

The last time we got to hang out with Grandma before our inevitable journey home to Colorado, Kolbe grabbed her walker and took off.  Looks like he is interested in staying to help her go through therapy.  He's just the sweetest little guy around.  So full of life, energy, and pure joy. 

Grandma love....

with Kolbe being a goof and Sophie being stubborn and not smiling when I ask her to. 

Peek a boo!

It was so good visiting with Grandma.  What a beautiful time we had.  The kids did exercises with a group of seniors one day and ran around making them all laugh and smile.  They sat and colored pictures to leave with Great Grandma.  We talked about what we've been up to, we chatted about the design of shirts being sold on the Home Shopping Network, we discussed the kids, and we just spent time enjoying each other's presence.  It was fun.  We love you, Grandma!

Second Half of September 2017--Catch all post

This is the wonderful day that Sophie rubbed diaper cream all over her face.  

       

She is too funny (and a bit exasperating-ha!)

Making a special box for Grandma. 

I'm not an early riser (and even less so now that I have kids that tire me out and wake me up multiple times a night), but I always think God is so good when he rewards me with these beautiful sights on the days that someone drags me out of bed at dawn.  

We joined a homeschool co-op at our parish and it is going really well so far.  The two oldest are in 3 classes (a choir class, a STEM class, and a nature study class) and Ava is in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd and some nature study/games and activities.  My shy little Ava has had some tears over being separated from me, but she settles right in and has a good time.  

Talking about how the day went with our fearless mom-leader, Angela.  She's a huge blessing. 

kids reading (my favorite is that Sophie is totally engrossed in a chapter book....)

Kolbe got his first haircut.  It was so cute, but shaggy, so Chris decided to give him a cut.  My heart was totally against it, but I deferred knowing he would be cute no matter what.  

 

          

 

He was totally intrigued by it all and sat very still (which we didn't expect him to do).  He munched on a graham, which helped but he was mostly just enamored with the noise of the clippers.  

There is your proof, Chris, that his hair was not blond.  It was fine and often looked golden, but it was indeed a light brown. 

and of course he is. 

The toilet in the girls' bathroom was having an issue which we thought was a small one that Chris could fix in five minutes.  Turns out that when he started taking things apart, it was actually rusted and cracked and needed to be totally replaced.  bummer. 

 

And they had grouted it to the floor which was a real treat for Chris to deal with. 

There's the rusted out, old toilet (the water color and markings are RUST).

 We replaced it with this toilet that Chris installed himself (because he's amazing).  It was a harder job even than it should have been because the space in the bathroom is tiny so there was little room to move at all in there.  Thank you, babe, for working so hard and getting that toilet replaced.  You are incredible.  

 

The weather turned very fall-like for about a week/week and a half right as fall arrived, so we had to wear warmer clothes to Mass.  I love warm weather, but that's one thing I love about the cooler temps is leggings under a dress and a cute cardigan.  I'm fortunate enough to get the cute baby in all seasons. 

Just a typical Sophie moment.  She loves her new outfit from Grammy and Granddad and she added the fun boots and hat for fun (and because of those cooler temps I mentioned). 

She sure does have a happy heart.  

Stealing her sister's ballet bag and getting herself ready for her imaginary ballet class.  This girl is full of personality with tons to spare.  

Additionally, she finally decided to actually pottytrain and has been day trained for almost a month now.  She's too deep a sleeper to make it through night and naps currently, but she nearly a pro during the day now!  yay!!

I love to catch the kids reading, especially the baby.  so sweet. 

         

Chris began a new position (lateral move in the company) this month and had training in CA, so he was gone a few days.  We sent him silly selfies and face-timed him when he had time a few evenings he was gone.  

and Kolbe got croup (this is the first we have experienced croup--which surprised the Urgent Care doctor immensely) and we had some tough nights.  I finally realized what it was and he was sounding awful one night.  Luckily I had invited a few ladies over for a girls night and they were so good and offered to stay and hang out with the sleeping little girls, so I could take Kolbe to Urgent Care.  We had a wonderful experience, they gave him a dose of steroid, and by morning he was nearly his old self again (minus the lingering cough, but it was much improved also).  

It was not a fun experience, but I'm grateful I had community to support me since Chris was out of town.  I was feeling so helpless and everyone stepped up to help and support which was invaluable.  

 

We've been noticing tons of butterflies in the area and many in our yard the last few weeks.  The kids love dancing around the yard with them and trying to sneak up and get a good look at the designs on their wings.  

            

Kolbe's fav activity

        

We have been trying to plan more dates (out of the house, but also in home) that are a little more effort than the usual, "let's have dessert and watch a show" fare.  I found a steal on Ahi tuna and scallops and Chris whipped up this delicious meal for the two of us to share one evening for a late dinner after the kids had been put to bed.  

 

It was SO good.  

September was a busy month, but definitely another very fun one filled with lots of good memories.