Today was a no nap and no quiet time day.  And it was a great day. 

After lunch, the kids decided to want to do art as Saku called it. For the next hour and a half, they took turns with play dough, water colors and foam stickers while I talked with them, organized a kitchen cabinet and reserved books from the library. 

Eerika's favorite game is playing house when I am the child and she is the mom and Saku is the dad. Saku goes to work in his room where he builds legos and I do whatever Eerika wants me to do. She loves to pretend and she is quite good at it, it just that each "activity" last about 30 seconds, so the game is little intense. 

Saku loves his legos. He is so good at building with them. Yesterday we built walkie talkies out of them and had a great time pretending to be spies. 

Tonight I made delicious cheesy taco soup for dinner and green smoothies. Eerika says "I don't like that" to anything that is not pb&j sandwich or mac-n-cheese before she even tries it. I was very happy that she ate bunch of the soup with ground beef and black beans. My kids think that tomatoes are poison and go hysterical if I try to feed them those so I ended up eating their tomatoes. I loved the fact that they were "washing down" their soup with a spinach, blueberry, pineapple and banana smoothie. Saku asked if we could have it every day.

After dinner we had a game of soccer while Eerika wanted me to be her child. She loves the word "child" and often addresses me as "child" when we are playing. 

I also survived another day of teaching joy school. Still not my favorite thing in the world but I am learning to make it fun for the kids and myself. In the end of the class, we had a good time spelling out simple words such as "cat, hat, mat" and few of the kids, including Saku could do it.

Today was a pretty ordinary day. However, the fun times with the kids and the accomplishment of organizing two closets and vacuuming the stairs plus a delicious dinner make this a good day.

Troy went straight from work to scouts. He works so hard for those boys. He gets frustrated. He makes sacrifices. I make sacrifices. And I think I am safe to say that he loves it. I am proud of the way he has changed in the past two years as he has served with the scouting program. I hope that Saku will one day have a leader like his isi is now. 

What a Week

There are times when I feel silly to be blogging as much as I do. I would blog every day if I had the time and energy to do it. I love to write down about my life, our life, our kids, and our adventures. 

I have been blogging for six years now. I started when everyone else was doing it. So I would blog and then read many of my friends would read my blog daily and I would read theirs and that is just the way it was. And now no one does it anymore. Except the professional bloggers, of course.

Last night as I was waiting for Troy to return from his ski trip with the scouts, I watched a video of Stephanie Nielsen talking at a tech conference about the importance of writing down your family history. I wish I didn't need outside validation, but sometimes I just do and it was nice to hear that my ramblings on my blog are not in vain or out of vanity. I want to write down the best of times and the worst of times, so my family will know how we lived. My kids can read stories about themselves that they won't remember. So I can look back and see the personal growth that each of has gone through.

This week has busy and exhausting. Each day we had something "big" scheduled.

On Wednesday, we got a chance to visit Saku's future school. They had their kindergarten introduction. Troy stayed home in the morning and we both went to the school with Saku. Since we have many friends with older kids, they didn't really share much information that we didn't know already. It was cool to check out the class rooms and see the four different teachers.

Saku got the elementary school t-shirt and he has worn it for three days in a row.

While Saku was at the elementary school, Eerika went to play with Brittney and was invited to Averi's joy school Valentine's Day party. She wore all pink and red. 

He comes up with the funniest "i'm so cool" poses.

Aliya and Saku waiting for the Kindergarten Round Up to start.

He got to spend about 45 minutes in the class room. When we asked him what he thought of kindergarten, he said "I want to stay here forever".  He had also insisted that he could start with the blue table station...no surprise there.

Troy went for a ski trip with the scouts from Friday to Saturday in the White Mountains. We had invited two sets of friends over to share pizza and cupcakes. While we waited in the backyard and played, we found a walking stick bug.

It took me good 30 seconds to realize that it was a bug and not a stick. Saku did a great job spotting it.

We read that they like to eat lettuce, so we came the bug some...Saku thinks that it ate some of it.

Saku is wearing his new school shirt again...

On Saturday, I threw a baby shower for Elisha. She is the mom of one of Saku's joy school friends. After five and a half year break, she is having a baby boy. I love the idea of doing parties, but I am not a party planner and I get very stressed out. We did chocolate fondue and cupcakes as it was an evening baby shower. We played a nursery rhyme game and pictionary and then we just chatted and opened presents. I felt that it was a successful night and I hope that Elisha felt loved and celebrated.

When I have a good book to read, life is good. I just finished this book and it was a great one to read. It is almost relief to be done with it because then I don't have this urge to read it ALL the time, but then I am slightly sad to be without the thrill of a good book.

Other events not pictures:

teaching joy school on Tuesday and Friday with a special Valentine's Day party,
having friends over for dinner on Tuesday night and Friday night,
hosting a basics class (for relief society) on marriage on Thursday,
visiting Heather on Thursday afternoon,
girls' night on Wednesday night at Olive Garden and little shopping at Target
and
a date night on Thursday night at Zin Burger and Costco

It was all things that I had volunteered/planned and they were all good, but I am glad that next week is not so crazy.

First Soccer Season is Over

We survive our first soccer season. I say "our" because it took a lot of commitment to show up to practice twice a week and have a game each Saturday. Eerika was a good sport about supporting Saku and she loved getting her share of the soccer snacks. 

Saku had some emotional games when he would be sad about the other team being better or his team mates scoring instead of him. He is still very aware if/when the other team is better, but he learned to control his emotions much better. If he got hurt, he would still cry, but he learned to appreciate his team mates' skills.

He also proved to be a great defender. He would protect his team's end well and use his power kicks to get the ball out of his area. In the last two games, he was very good about running fast to defend the goal if the other team was trying to score. He could out run most kids. While I am not going to lie and say that it isn't nice to see your kid excel, and even be better than his peers but we just really loved the personal growth and his new attitude of not giving up. 

When we started the season, we just wanted him to stay on the field and have fun and we maintained that attitude. We took a happy game over a scored goal anytime. 

In the last game, a team mate's brother called him an "iron wall" because he wouldn't let the ball get pass him. 

Coach Gina did a great job with the kids.  It was enough for me to just show up each time to practice, so I appreciate her enthusiasm and sacrifice to teach the kids the basics of soccer.  

Drake, Sienna, Christian, Leila, Diego, Saku and Ella with Coach Gina and some random kid

Last team huddle with their trophies.

As much as Troy does not like the whole "every kid gets a trophy", it was sweet to see Saku get his trophy at the end of the year party.

It is nice to have our Saturday mornings back and dinner is easier when you dont have a 5 pm practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, I think we will do it again next year. 

Saku and I spend quality time together in the back yard kicking a ball around. I find it relaxing and fun to chat while kicking the soccer ball back and forth. 

Your four year old isn't watching movies until 12:30 am?

I feel very content right now. I snuggled our kids as they fell asleep within five minutes of my singing. Because of Eerika's desire to skip a nap and Saku's spontaneous movie night last night, they were both exhausted. 

Troy and I have started a new thing, we take turns of putting kids to bed. We are all together as a family while we read a book or two,  the Book of Mormon and say a family prayer and then one of us stays to tell a story, sing a song and deal with the after math of going to sleep. The kids are sleeping in the same 

room for now and it is going well. 

We have both loved the fact that every other night, we get a break from it. You don't have to look at each other and ask "do you want me to check on it? when you hear a suspicious noise or hear another request for water/whatever else it might be. 

Last night Troy put the kids to bed. And we went to bed at 10:30. Then about 12:30 am, Saku crawls into our bed and says "I have been watching movies and not sleeping". The kids listen to stories on the iPad as they fall asleep. Saku had climbed up the book shelf, which is attached to the wall, and gotten the iPad down. While Eerika slept, he had watched movies on the ipad for several hours. I am thinking that it was the pbs kids app, so nothing inappropriate, BUT seriously, the kid watched movies for hours until the iPad battery died. I was not happy about it at 12:30, but luckily we all went to sleep quickly after this interruption. I say all as Eerika somehow woke up too and came down as Saku came down 

For some reason, he was very sleepy this morning when it was time to wake up for joy school. But it sure made tonight's bed time easy. So there is a silver lining to the absurd event. 

There will be a password installed into that iPad tonight. 

Also if you ever wonder what poop looks like, Eerika can tell you "it is not chocolate". She informed me of this as we were flushing the toilet last week.

Saku is quite observant. Eerika is sassy. She has so much attitude. She is a teenager. It is funny and awful. It is funny afterwards and awful while you are dealing with it. So she was telling Troy in her bossy, not so kind voice "I am not talking to you". As Saku observed this, he said "that's kind of funny because she IS talking to you". 

I have a good book to read as I wait for Troy to get home. Brittny and her kids came over for dinner. I feel new friendships blossoming in my life and I am very grateful for it. I am learning that I might need to be the one to be proactive about getting together with people and as long as I swallow my pride and just do it, I am very blessed with people around me. 

Good thing being sick isn't our norm

We have been hit hard with sickness in the last three weeks or so. Both of the kids had fevers three weeks ago and we had our first course of antibiotics for each kid. They actually liked taking their medicine and they had to remind me about it more than once. So I guess I am raising responsible children even if I am not on top of it. It is ironic to forget about an antibiotic dose that is twice a day when I am a nurse.  After the course of antibiotics, Saku got the fifth disease. It didn't bother him too much so he just looked funny with the rash and red cheeks. 

Because the kids were sick during their well child visits, they couldn't get their vaccinations. I rescheduled a nurse visit so we could be up to date on their shots, especially Saku's for kindergarten registration. Eerika spiked a fever two days before the visit and got a nice rash within 24 hours of the visit. Our nurse visit turned into a doctor visit for her and she got diagnosed with hand, mouth and foot disease. No shots for her since her immune system already under attack.  Saku still got his three shots. It wasn't fun but we got it done and we don't have to do it for a while. 

Eerika had only one spot of rash. It seemed like a bad case of eczema, until she woke up (24 hours later) with rash everywhere else too. 

Eerika was miserable all of Wednesday. And when she started to feel better, Saku spiked a fever of 102. Sure enough, he has sores in his mouth and very sore throat. He has lived on few crackers and root beer to wash down the ibuprofen for the past 24+ hours. 

The rash is around her mouth;fortunately, it didn't get inside her mouth. 

And her hands.

The kids handle sickness so differently. Of course I can't tell how they physically feel but emotionally they are very different. Saku is so whiney. It is enough to drive you crazy. Hence I am writing this while Jake and Never Land Pirates gives all of us a little break from feeling "not good at all" as Saku puts it. Eerika gets cranky when she is sick but she is definitely a trooper. Saku will cry and cry and then after a dose of ibuprofen, he will be as good as new until he doesn't feel good again and then he will cry and cry. 

So in between Eerika's new found sassyness and temper tantrums, plus recovering from being sick and Saku's oversensitivity to feeling sick, my patience and charity toward them are being tested. 

It is hard being a mom and taking care of kids who don't feel well. I feel awful for them. I love them so much. But it doesn't mean that the whining, the crying, the neediness, the lack of patience from them doesn't wear on you. Especially when it has been five days of it. Actually I am thinking of that the fact that I love them so much and I think the world of them, it is hard when you want to shut yourself in a room and say "see you in few hours".  While there is so sick day for a mom, Troy has been awesome and I have gotten some good runs in this week. Actually the only way we survived yesterday was the fact that I went for a run before Troy left for a work and I took a nap with the kids. Sick day isn't as bad when you sleep three hours of it away:)

The silver lining is that we aren't sick very often. We don't have chronic illnesses to deal with. We aren't battling serious, life threatening illnesses. So as long as I loosen up a bit and let them watch more TV, we should all survive this. 

Why would we only have one celebration?

Eerika' birthday celebration didn't end with the smores.

On Monday, we went to Chucke Cheese's. The kids loved the place. I honestly think it is white trashy, but sometimes you just gotta do the things that the kids love. Both kids got about 15 play money and they used it quickly. Saku played games while Eerika enjoyed the rides. 

On Tuesday, we had a cupcake play date. It was very low key. It was so low key that I didn't even have coordinating plates, cups or napkins. BUT I did have the awesome birthday table cloth that I made for last year's party.  We had an open invite to our ward friends. I wasn't expecting presents as it was just a play date with cupcakes. However, everyone brought presents. I told Eerika that she was so lucky and she added "I am so happy too". 

Jordyn and Katie came and gave Eerika a fun book. Books are pretty much my favorite thing and this book has already been read about five times. 

Ryker, Finnley and Erin and Carter, Boston and Jaden showed up with a movie, play dough and finger paints. They spoiled her. That's the truth.

Eerika ate two cupcakes, or should I say the frosting of two cupcakes. 

I was pretty happy with the cupcakes. It was my first time of making cupcakes pretty and they turned out pretty.

The birthday girl was very happy to have an actual cupcake party as we have pretended to have them for months.

Ryker and Carter

Finnley

Genevieve

Jacob, Alice and Nicole showed up a bit later so we have no pictures of them. Eerika was lucky to get another fun book to read. Saku actually ended up reading it with Nicole right after he got home from joy school.

I loved celebrating Eerika again. And I loved that it was with our Corona friends. While I have loved living here for the past two years, I am realizing that friendships take time and it is harder to make friends than it was with just one kid and all the time in the world. So it was important to me to have our "new" friends celebrating with us.

Getting a good start for our week after a great weekend

When the alarm went off this morning at 6:30, I did not get out of bed. Troy had left to work at 5:30. He is quite amazing about getting up and going.

About forty minutes later, I felt a little head on my shoulder. It was Eerika. Saku had already been snoring next to me for few hours. On most nights he finds his way into our bed. He climbs in between Troy and I, and we don't even wake up to it.

Sometimes it really is hard to get started on a Monday. I have come to realize that I need to interact with people to feel like myself. I don't think I am needy but I need to have a real human connection, outside of my kids. So to get my emotional and mental batteries charged, we headed to our neighborhood park where some of my friends get together and walk while kids play.

Eerika was not feeling good. She wouldn't let me put her down so I ended up holding her while Saku played for a bit. I got to talk to Brittny and sure enough, that conversation gave me the boost that I needed for the rest of the day.

We have discovered an awesome skateboard park in Rita Ranch. Saku loves going there with his Razor and doing tricks. My favorite part about the park is the fact that Saku has fallen multiple times, he has cried and each timed he has wanted to continue to try new tricks. It shows such growth in him to not give up. It has also made me aware that maybe a broken bone or two wont be that far away in the future. Each time he falls and really does seem to get hurt, I am checking to see that nothing snapped. He even bit his lip and had blood in his mouth, but through his sobs he said "I don't want to go".

Eerika continued to feel crappy and took a nap on my lap. Since I was holding Eerika the whole morning, I do not have any pictures of Saku's scooter skills. However, I did take pictures of our fun weekend with Grandma and Grandpa.

We do not take many pictures with Grandma and Grandpa. So I was happy to get these shots of the kids and them at the Phoenix Botanical Garden. The kids and grandparents have gotten a lot more affectionate over the past year and it makes me really happy. And I am sure it makes Troy even happier.

There was a special Chihuly (glass art) exhibition there. I was not aware how huge the place was and ended up carrying Eerika quite a bit.

The artist mentioned doing some of his work in Finland and had found some of his inspiration in the rivers of Finland. 

Some giant Saguaro cacti!

Add caption

The main reason for our trip to Phoenix was the Gilbert Temple open house. The kids are used to us going to the temple, but they don't get to go inside with us. So it was special for them to come with us and see what the temple looked like. Saku made multiple insightful comments such as "I want to get married here", "I feel close to Jesus", and "this is pretty like heaven".

I honestly felt a bit rushed through the tour, and I had expected to get more information about the temple instead of a silent tour. However, it was a special experience for the kids and I am looking forward to having a temple only two miles away from Trent and Regina so baby sitting will be easier.

Eerika chose her princess dress as the dress to go to the temple. She received many comments on how beautiful it was.
I am quite blessed to have these two kids and this handsome husband and to KNOW that I will be with them forever.