Winning

This week has been absolutely insane. I picked up a new job. Our van is in the shop. Ruthie has strep throat. Sterling has a SHELF exam on Friday. Friday is also Will's birthday and he has our first Haws family ever birthday party on Saturday (everyone will get one this year, he just has the first birthday in the year). And then I planned on babysitting for a family one evening so that they'd babysit for us on our anniversary weekend. But then I ended up babysitting another family (well, more like picking them up and taking them to school and picking them up and taking them home, but one hangs out for a while before her sister gets out of school) twice. It's just been...way more hectic than our already hectic schedule.

So today I wanted to journal a little bit about what is going well in our house. How we are winning.

• We have the most adorable baby boy ever that just gets more and more adorable. He has learned to wave and we are all dying over the cuteness.
• I checked everything off my list today (this is huge, as my day has been insanely scheduled starting with 630am when I was simultaneously teaching a class and having girls dropped off at my house to watch) except completing the ward bulletin. And lets be real--I probably won't do the ward bulletin until Saturday night--but one can always be hopeful.
• Yesterday I took the time to take a secondhand pair of jeans and put in tucks/darts so they didn't gap in the back and cut them off into shorts (my two pair I've worn for the past three and a half years here are falling apart) and I EVEN unpicked and re-hemmed to get it just the exact length I wanted. ALSO in huge sewing news (can you tell I am NOT a sewer?) I took in a pencil skirt that has been just a tad baggy so now I feel like I have a whole new skirt and I am so happy! Even if it felt like a super hard task for me!
• New family system up and going. I've been reading several positive parenting books. To remind myself that if there are systems in place then I don't have to be angry at my children for not listening, a consequence automatically falls into place. We have some repeat offenders we've been struggling with around here: getting out of bed multiple times for nonsense reasons, not listening after multiple times, hitting/pinching, and not putting toys away.  Oh man, parenting is for real. Lets hope the family meeting at dinner tonight and the few new things we have implemented help put some positivity into our home and help our children realize we are all in this together as a family to make our home happy!
• Will watched a volcano explode in his class today so that meant that Sterling was sending vinegar and baking soda expanding on our kitchen table tonight and the kids were 100% enthralled. Definite win.
• Molly changes her outfit three times a day into whatever she feels like and comes out strutting like a supermodel and states "I am a superstar!" it is my favorite.
• Will explained to me today all about dinosaurs and how they were 'un-stinked'. He related a story about one particular dinosaur 'he was un-stinked, I think because he was so slow. Slow dinosaurs are the first un-stinked.' and I was laughing so hard the entire story.
• Today I told Will that I wanted him to stay little forever, that he needed to stay four. He said "But I don't want to die!" (I don't know why that was connected?) and Molly replied "It's okay Will. You will just come back alive, like Jesus. And then you get to be resurrected." It was the sweetest thing!
• OH we are winning because I made THE BEST dinner tonight. If you have not had chicken fajitas off of Mels kitchen site--go now. And make it immediately. I seriously ate the rest of the chicken off the skillet before doing the dishes because I just. couldn't. stop.
• I also made some delicious oatmeal chocolate peanut butter bars off of togetherasfamily.com and will definitely be making again soon. Not too sweet, and maybe not the best dessert ever--but kind of the perfect thing to throw together and please everybody.
• My Chinese students. I have one repeat student, Victor, who is the cutest little boy in the world and I am loving teaching him. Also--the parents. I've realized that teaching Chinese kids is a family affair--often both parents are sitting on either side of the student as you teach them. It cracks me up.
• I'm training for a half marathon. I don't know if that counts as winning or not. But yesterday it went like this: Plan to run when the baby is fussy so he falls asleep in the stroller. First, pump up stroller tires. Pump up Will's bike tires. Pump up Ruth's bike tires. Live through Molly's tantrum to let her know she has to sit in the double stroller until workout is complete. Start running. Have to stop to get kids off playground and back onto the track. Start running. Have to stop to fix Ruthie's chain--which takes a good ten minutes. Start running. Have to stop because knee is throbbing in pain. UHHHHH---are we winning with this one? HAAHAHAAAHAA
• Another funny 3 yr old story. Molly is very emphatic about what she wears, how her hair is done (braids), putting her shoes on the RIGHT feet (she clarifies every time before putting them on), and getting her socks on just so. This morning was chillier than normal (55 degrees) so I had everyone put on a jacket. Molly most emphatically did not want to wear a jacket. As she demonstrated by her jumping and kicking and arm shaking. So I aquiesced. We walked out the door. Suddenly she was screaming and crying and writhing on the floor because she was cold. Next she was on the ground because Will was "winning" at their running race. Then it was because she didn't get to see what Will put in the snack box at his school. It was quite the 3 yr old morning this morning. It's a good thing she is also my Superstar and brings in so much hilarity I just can't help but love her!
• Every single day when walking Ruthie home from school Will stands in front of the entrance of a fence and asks for a password. We give random words which he judges funny, and allows us passage. Today Molly ran ahead and in eagerness, took up Will's post in front of the fence entrance. She demanded a password. Everyone just walked right past her. HAHAHAHAA! I felt so bad. So bad. But also--the poor thing thought she was SOOOO big and then she was so utterly defeated! I couldn't help but smile as I tried to soothe her outrage. Oh man. She thinks she is so big!
• Sprinkles on chocolate ice cream tonight for dessert. Huge win.
• Our van issues are completely covered by warranty. Another huge win.

Alright, I have to go teach two classes. But it does feel good to see how we're winning around here during this crazy-ville week. Wish us luck making it through to Saturday!

Phone Dump

This kid cruises around backwards in here.

And he's been sitting up now! This photo is from when he was just getting the hang of it.

So I started working-joined the trend that's everywhere--and I'm teaching English online to little Chinese kids. They are the cutest, it's going well, and things are good. But I had to have head shots, and I couldn't find ANYTHING without kids or other people, so one random morning at 7am Sterling quickly snapped a couple before he ran out to his rotation.

And this is in our bedroom, my set-up for teaching. HA! This was my set-up for taking my get-to-know me video. NOW there are paper props laying EVERYWHERE (and I use my laptop to teach, it's faster) along with puppets and dry erase markers and everything else you could imagine to making teaching English fun. What is nice though, I didn't have to buy anything--I just forage through my kids' toy bins.

Monochromatic. There are two other boys in Will's class of ten, so the three of them are pretty tight. And Holden, his friend, LOVES sharks. One of the moms bought matching shirts for the other two boys, so when I saw this BLUE (his favorite color, obviously) shark shirt at the Children's Place for 4.99 and free shipping, I thought it would be a pretty big hit. And it definitely has been.

Asleep at church. That is my absolute, absolute favorite. He is at this PERFECT stage where he is heavy, but it feel so so so nice to have that heavy, warm little bug snuggled up beside you. Oh he's the best!

Tuesdays we usually go to Library Little Picasso's. My kids LOVE that they get to do an art project at the library!

Ruthie and Will got new shoes--there is a Nike outlet by us, and all their clearance items were an additional 30% off. AND both my kids had grown so much I had to go up two sizes. Oops. Ruth's last pair had laces though, and I never took the time to teach her (horrible mom guilt here) so I'm pretty excited to move on from those shoes for a bit.

I just have to say, this pudding turned out AMAZING.

Sideways picture, but at the beginning of December our friends the Hillam's (okay just Jeff) got an expansion for Settlers. Pirates and Fishing? Anyway--the rule book had you learn by adding only one new thing per game. So it took us a total of four games to get to the point where we could play with all the new things. SOOOO---it's been some LONG Catan game nights in the making, but I WON the final game!! WAHOO!!! And then we played Carcassone, because that is more on my level. We play games with Jeff and Diana quite a bit, and we try to invite new friends, but someone asked what we liked to play, so I'll document here. We usually play a few quick games to offset one longer game in a night. Wackee Six, Carcassone, Dominion, 7 Wonders, Dungeon, DixIt, Citadels, Code Names, Monopoly (the monolopy that is a card game?), Sushi Go, Blokus (if there's only four of us), and everyone else seems to like Small World, but it is probably my least favorite. Over Christmas we did invite some new friends from the ward and they brought a few new ones that I LOVED--so we'll have to investigate :). 

That reminds me--we got some GREAT kids games for Christmas. I can NOT say enough good things about Sleeping Queens. We literally LOVE it over here. We also got Loot and really enjoy it but Ruth is the only one who can solidly play by herself so that makes it tricky. Last year we got Enchanted Forest and that is still going strong. We also have been teaching the kids Milles Bournes and I love it. Ruth and Will are both pretty good at playing it. Molly's favorite is Sleeping Queens, but she is also in love with Peek-A-Doodle, which is kind of just a glorified Memory. It's fun though.

Kidisms

 It's been too long since I've done a post like this. And honestly--I'm sad. Because I reread through some old ones, and saw some old sayings pop up on facebook--and I love reading through them! It reminds me instantly of how that time was! So here are a few from recently in hopes that it will motivate me to write things down more often.

While riding bikes home from school, Molly (in the child seat behind me) watches Ruth pass us and says "That Rupe! She is one cool kid!" I laughed and said she sure was, and Molly said "Yup. That's why I love her." Awwww.

Will had a worm supposedly fall out of a tree and onto his knee while riding his bike yesterday. So a bit later I asked him if he wanted to ride around the lake and he said "no, I don't want to see any worms spasms." ? HAAAHAA

This morning I was pushing the double stroller while the two oldest rode bikes, but Molly didn't want to ride in the stroller so she was running with me. Then she convinced me to skip and when we stopped she said "Mom! Keep skipping!" and I told her I was tired, so she pats my hand and says "Me too." and within the same breath she says "But that's not the same tired as for running-let's go!" Haha.

Ruth went to school today with her hair braided down flat so she could wear a bike helmet, a neon coral Key West shirt on, over a bright Hawaiian green flowered dress, with mismatch reddish flowered leggings. I was totally cool with it. Then we are at the school cross walk and I turn to our neighbor "You look so cute Abby, how come you're all dressed up?" "It's school pictures today." Face palm. Yup. Yup. They will all look adorable in their class photo and Ruth will basically be in luau get-up.

Today Molly and Will were playing with the doll house and figures by my feet. After I heard Will say the word "butt" a couple of times, I told him that wasn't okay and they needed to find another way to play. Then I hear him whisper "Hey Molly, lets move all this downstairs so that mom can't hear us play anymore." Stinker.

I wish I would've written it down right then, but yesterday Will used a completely made-up word (something like digramon or something like that) and when I asked him what he was saying, he said his sentence several times and looked at me like I was completely crazy for not understanding. It was hilarious.

Will, while walking along a boardwalk said "I think the people who made this made the bridge, and then squirted the water around it and then put in leaves to make it dirty." 

Will is definitely at the "why" stage. I need to get more of it down on paper. Why do they have water towers? How do they put the water in water towers? When does it come out? How do they get the water out? 

 

Loxahatchee National Refuge-MLK Day

The last few years we've been in the Everglades for MLK Day--free national parks! But this year, by a grand unplanned event, we headed to Loxahatchee National Refuge and went on a true Florida "hike" which was all of .5 miles and completely flat and boarded. But, I have to say, this was EPIC. This was swamp and crocodile country like the imagination of Roald Dahl, or Lloyd Alexander, or Jim Henson, or Frank Oz. I took pictures to try and capture it, but a flat picture does not capture the expanse of green and moss and weird trees. 

The kids were great--Will got a pair of binoculars from the visitor's center (in exchange for Sterling's license) and he was in HEAVEN. And Molly was our official thing-finder (we were listening to Pippi Longstocking on our way and the kids were all about being Thing-Finder's). She must have been at the perfect height to look through the slats because she saw everything! Turtles and moss and gigantic snail shells and 'knees'. We learned that knees were parts of the tree root that went to grow up out of the swamp, but then went back down. There were tons of them. It was really weird.

Oh and also the Visitor's Center was AMAZING. There was an entire room that was circular and had a star-filled ceiling and it was all black and when you started the story things would light up to tell the story. Like an alligator. Or a raccoon. My kids all laid on the floor next to Sterling and watched all the lights and listened to the entire story while I nursed the baby. It was seriously so cool.

Soooo many vines.

Turtle!

Old Man's Beard moss coming off everything in sight.

This boardwalk was just so cool. Those are my people up there, and that scene is so familiar. It's weird to think that in a year or so this will be less familiar. Will and his blue (yesterday he was so proud he had on a blue shirt, blue pants, blue sweatshirt AND blue undies!), Ruth and her leggings plus a dress plus a shirt over top. Molly bouncing and prancing and skipping along and shrieking and singing and climbing. Everyone fighting over the binoculars--Will not able to pronounce them. Pretending that there are fairy kingdoms and cities all along the way and that they use the moss leaves to float around in the morning. Having Molly breathlessly ask "And where are they now?" as Ruth gives an I-know-all answer to all the fairy stories. It was a good day. And they are some awesome, awesome kids. Not to mention Sterling, who obviously kept that fairy story going like it was his job. He did that on one of our first dates--with my nieces Hailey and Cassidy. We took them with on a whim because I felt bad Lindsay Ann was so sick. He ended up carrying Hailey down the entire mountain after carrying Cassidy up the entire thing (I carried Cassidy down, but she was probably under 2 and I hadn't carried anyone the first half). He is so good at engaging with kids and their imaginations. And I think it was really good for him to take a day away from the books to just breathe.

All about the knees.

 I'm trying to get as much 3 year old spunk out of her right now as I possibly can and I love our mornings together, just us and Russ. She is obsessed with braids in her hair and asking me a million times to make sure her shoes are on the right feet. She says excuse me, but she yells it repeatedly--so I think the point is kind of lost on her. Haha. She creeps down the stairs each morning and calls down "mommy! Guuuuuessss what I'm wearing!" and then jumps down pleased as punch about whatever she's picked. It's the best.

Will checking out the landscape. Pretty sure there were fists flying a second before about whose turn it was. Oh man.

Supposedly those tiny green leaves that grow all over the water are really great for....something. But helpful....in some way? HAAHAAHAAA

I never actually read about this tree, but Sterling did and told me how it wraps around other trees to grow. So weird.

If you look closely, right where the lily pads and the marsh grass meets, there is an alligator. This was the first time I begged for a turn with the binoculars, and it felt like I was sitting right there with that gator! So cool!

There was a MASSIVE binocular thing on the watchtower to look through. We didn't really see anything other than birds, but it was neat.

We saw a full rainbow when we stopped at Walmart on our way home and the kids were ENCHANTED.

Loved that we could get out on a day that was cool and refreshing and somewhat sans bugs (for Florida) and have such a good break. Sterling and I just planned 4th year and all of his externships and Step 2 and OSCE exams and application due dates and interviews and....I'm going to be flying solo for a big chunk of next year. And I think it's made me extra sappy about right now. Third year has been really good to us.

Sunday Afternoon Jan 2018

This girl and that hair. And when did she grow up into this old person? I can't handle it.

Ruthie asked to use my camera. I believe in cool, stretchy skirts on Sundays and marvel t-shirts and Life is Good hoodies, apparently. It's going to be weird when palm trees aren't a perfectly normal part of the background of our lives.

Then Will wanted to take a picture with the camera.

Three of my kids and my husband are in that slide. Let me tell you how it went. A whole lot of chatter at the top before anyone even attempted going down...it's a good thing we were the only ones there...and then a riot of laughter and slow scooting down the slide. Thirty minutes later (I may exaggerate just a bit) they all made it out with massive smiles on their faces. Sterling reports that tunnel slides are not made for people who are 6 foot 4. Glad to know that he did the science and researched it for us.

This was a delightful Sunday afternoon (yay for 9 o'clock church! And actually we had Regional Conference so it was just 10-12 and no meetings!) wherein we talked about what type of dog we want once we a)have a backyard and b)don't have anymore babies (Ruth's memory, not mine..haha!). Will wants a Forever Puppy and softness is a high priority. I learned that it's not just me--even Sterling acknowledged that carrying Russell is the exact equivalent to carrying a twenty pound bowling ball. And we all know how fun it is to carry bowling balls around. I mean, I do it all the time and I couldn't be happier. Sterling also spent twenty minutes convincing Russell that his first words will, in fact, be 'dada'. Russell laughed at him a lot, so I'm not sure how convinced he was, but it was epicly adorable. Will asked his endless stream of 'why' questions (I keep meaning to write his questions down the minute he asks them---he asks things I have no idea about, like how do they fill and empty water towers?) and it was nice to have daddy around to actually explain them. Ruthie showed amazing endurance when she kept walking even when her new sandals started rubbing a blister. And everyone's favorite color was acknowledged and dissected. I think it was capital day! Here's to more glorious Sunday's before the weather warms up again!