Heads up: Derek and I both added to this blog post.
Fun Run! This was our second year attending Hudson Elementary for the fun run!
Brinley
Ashlyn the roadrunner
Cheerleaders
It's a blurry picture but you can see Brinley just to the left of the lady in blue. She was very focused on her running.
These kids had fun watching and playing with glow sticks!
I always love to see these two working together well, helping each other clean up.
Emmett is such a chill baby. He is totally content in his swing with his toys.
This girl is loving Mommy school! I love watching her get giggly and her excitement bring joy to me.
Practicing the "Big B"
Scissor practice and making caterpillars out of gummy life savers.
Emmett enjoys mommy school too!
I love how this program teaches the little b and d- bat and baseball for the b and donut and down for the d. She is really getting it by recognizing the letters, but also writing them too. She is working so hard.
All the girls created this box (doghouse) a few weeks ago. I admire their creativity.
Flipbook Time
I love being home with these three cuties. I miss the olders too while they are at school, but I enjoy to quality time that I can spend with these youngers!
These 3 girls started dance and gymnastics at this new dance studio in Lufkin. I forgot to take a picture the first day (so this is after the second lesson). We have Claire who is taking ballet, tap, and gymnastics, Brinley is taking jazz, hip-hop, and gymnastics, and Ashlyn is taking gymnastics. They all love their classes. I am enjoying them all being in different classes and exploring a variety of dance styles so they can get a taste of what they might enjoy.
I sometimes feel bad for Desi because she isn't old enough, but she gets to spend time with daddy during the classes while Emmett sleeps. She will join this crew next year.
My friend Lindsey shared with me a life changing idea for laundry that I thought I had a great routine, but she increased the magic. Each girl has their own laundry basket and I do separate loads (one/day). This means that I don't have to take the time to separate the clothes! The girls already put their clothes away themselves. I am excited to test this idea!
The girls were so excited to use my labeler and print their names on their basket. The joy of typing your own name.
Jenny taught Ashlyn how to pour water on me while I'm in the shower. Not one of my favorite things...
Derek gets the HUSBAND OF THE YEAR AWARD!
(Story from Derek's perspective)
I didn't get many pictures but I want to share an experience.
Jenny had been feeling overwhelmed with parenting and everything going on. We had been talking about things. She decided that the next morning she would take the girls and do something special (take them to a donut shop). Well, the girls ended up fighting and Jenny decided not to go. I came home (can't remember where I was, the gym, maybe?). Jenny went for a walk and I gathered the girls around the kitchen table and we had a talk.
(Jenny's add-on: (Jenny's perspective)
On Derek and I's date I was explaining (with tears) how overwhelmed and hard it is to be the mom that I want to be. The girls were constantly fighting, no one would listen to me, and I didn't even want to be around the kids because I would hear whinning and more fighting (one of the hardest things as a parent). I was thinking that I need to change my attitude and do something fun the next day for the girls and to have a great experience together to get me out of this rut. Brinely recently has been saying that when she grows up she wants to be a donut maker- so lets me it happen! Bright and early I called a couple of the local donut shops to ask if we could do a tour and then buy a donut, but they declined. So I found some fun youtube videos and we watched them while we waited for Derek to get back from the gym. After 3 videos I turned it off and heard some whining and said, "Ok we could do one more." Then we head to the car and buckle up and there is fighting firing up. I try to ignore it and then I asked as sweet as I could to stop fighting. Well it continued and I just told everyone to get out of the car. All four girls were in tears. I was so upset because I wanted to do something fun as a family, something that was meaningful to Brinley, and I just wanted to have a better attitude, but I just snapped (passive aggressively). As soon as Derek walked into the door, I walked around the neighborhood while pumping my weights up and down, fuming inside because I want to run to get my anger out (physcial therapist said I can't run yet) and I was sick of my kids! ha)
Then I asked the girls if they could list off things that they did that were nice for Mommy. They couldn't think of anything really. So I got an idea... we would spend the rest of the day doing special things for Mom and call it "Mommy Appreciation Day".
So we started brainstorming what we could do. Here's what we did.
We all got in the car and went and found Mom on her walk and picked her up. Didn't tell her where we were going, just told her to get in the car, and come home. She wasn't super happy about it, she mainly just wanted some alone time. We took her home, told her to shower and wear something comfortable.
Meanwhile, we prepared some papers and envelopes and placed them in secret places in the truck.
We hopped in the van and had her follow us in the truck.
We first drove to the hospital and pulled in the parking lot. I motioned for her to come into the van.
On our drive to the hospital I became pretty emotional thinking about everything Jenny does for our family. She really makes up so much of what our family is, and feels like. I was feeling so grateful for her. So I pulled into the hospital and had Jenny jump in the van. It was the hospital where we had Emmett. I started crying and just told Jenny how grateful I was that she really sacrificed so much to have each of our kids. The pregnancies, deliveries, and recoveries associated with each, were not the most fun process. I said thanks, and gave her a hug and a kiss and had her get back in the truck.
(Jenny's add-on: I was so confused why Derek was crying so hard in front of the hospital. I totally thought he was going to share with me that he has cancer or something horrible. I was really relieved and touched by his emotions toward me.)
Then we drove to a salon where I had made a reservation for a massage for Jenny. We dropped her off and told her that after she finished she needed to text me for further instructions.
After she finished she was told where to find and envelope with the next instructions. She was told to go wherever she wanted for lunch, smoothie, ice cream, etc. whatever she was feeling like.
She went to Cafe Del Rio and got the Fajita Salad (it's been one of our favorites recently).
(I have never been to a restaurant by myself before. It was kind of nice.)
Then she was given movie tickets and told to come home. She has been wanting to watch "The Parent Trap".
You can see in the picture in the bottom left corner, little treasures that the girls prepared for Mom.
It was a great experience for all of us. It was a neat experience for me. What started as a normal day without a whole lot of purpose, quickly became a day focused on someone else that I love very much. It was really neat.
The next morning we made Donuts from scratch! Brinley loved it!
Derek and I were carrying some garbage out and I stepped on something slimy. I thought to myself that I might have stepped on a frog because we see a lot of frogs outside, but nope IT WAS A SNAKE!!! Snakes are my least favorite animal!!!!
Good thing he has sisters that always take care of him.
Claire is the sweetest. She is always hugging and reading stories to Emmett.
Thank you Grandma Martinson for this slide! We've had it for a while now, but it's recently become a water slide.
One of my favorite things about being a dad to these cute girls is seeing their imaginations and how they really don't need anything fancy or expensive to have fun together.
It's not very often you see this guy fall asleep while someone's holding him.
Claire, Desi, and I saw this raccoon on the side of the road after dropping off Ashlyn and Brinley at school.
Jenny was able to go to Timeout For Women in Dallas with her friend Lindsey Melton. She left Friday morning and returned Saturday night. These girls missed their mom but we made it fun. I had the girls bring out their mattresses. We had a movie night and sleepover in the living room.
It was actually a great experience for me having Jenny gone. I realized how much I missed Jenny. We love spending time together after the kids are in bed. And she really brings so much energy to our family. She is so good at creating things for us to look forward to and helping us work together to get things done.
It was a nice day outside so the girls decided to do their painting out there.
See what I mean about their imaginations? They each found sticks and made their own fishing poles and created a little pond.
Brinley made this special treat for me and wrapped it up. It was very nice of her.
I asked Ashlyn to feed Emmett to help me out for a few minutes. Pretty soon, she had created this apparatus that freed up her time. HAha.
One night much past bedtime, Ashlyn came down to show me that she had been working on her hair to try and get it to be curly the next day. She did a great job!
Church!
We love smoothies!
One of my assistants gave me some fish filets of Red Drum that they caught in the gulf. Big fish! And it was so good! Desi even ate it all! She's our pickiest eater and she ate it all up.
Drinking like a dog
I have been going to the gym 3-4 times per week for the last month or so and I've been loving it! Been going with a guy in our ward who is also a physical therapist. He is in excellent shape and pretty strong. It's been a lot of fun to learn technique behind different lifts and exercises.
There's an outdoor area where we do deadlifts, cleans, pullups, chinups, and rope climb. On Friday morning, I was jogging and warming up and tripped and skinned my knees and hands pretty good. I washed up, put some band-aids on and went on with the work out. And I actually did the rope climb to the top! I was super pumped! I never in my life thought that I'd be able to do the rope climb.
I've been feeling very motivated and excited to get in shape and get stronger. I've never felt like this as much before so I'm looking forward to this journey.
This guy did the rope climb all the way to the top!
I am so proud of him for working so hard at working out and learning all the technique.
Battle wound
Anniversary Get-Away!
Sable stayed overnight and watched the kids while Jenny and I had a getaway. It was great. We went to Manhattan's for dinner, the nicest place in Lufkin. It's great food, pretty fancy. The only other time we ate there was when we closed on the practice.
After that we went and checked in to the Marriott. We had a great night and spent most of the time just talking. I absolutely love this girl. I know I've said it several times in this post, but I'm so grateful for her, her love for life, positive attitude, and dedication to reach her goals.
We worked out the next morning just in the hotel exercise room. It was fun to do things together.
Jenny loves the elliptical!
Sable did an awesome job watching the kids! When we walked into the door she looked pretty tired. Her mom told me at church that she came home and napped the whole afternoon.
Apparently Ashlyn woke up at 5:30 and woke up everyone else too.
PJ MASKS (their favorite tv show right now)
I can't share enough of how much I love this happy boy!
I went to time of for women with my college roommate Lindsey in Dallas. We first met up and did a session in the temple. What a beautiful place to start a great weekend!
Right after we finished our dinner and getting ready to head to the conference center where the event was held, the rain poured down and the streets were flooding. We waited a bit for the rain to die down, but it didn't so we asked the manager of the restaurant if they had bags we could put over our heads. The rain made the experience super fun! I am just glad that I had Derek's truck to drive in the flooded streets!
(My friend Lindsey)
Lindsey and I have been roommates all our years at BYU! I am so grateful for wonderful lifelong friends like her! We had a blast and it is fun to have girl time and be goofy and carefree for a night or two. I am so blessed to have a great hubby who lets me take time away to rejuvenate. "Happy wife, happy life" Derek uses that quote from my dad.
Over the summer I read 2 books and both of the authors said that they got therapists and it has been life-changing for them. It made me want to get a therapist. I didn't really need a therapist for something specific so I decided to get a life coach. It has been life-changing for me! I am really enjoying her and learning so much. I have learned about the power of my thoughts and how I can create the life I want. There is so much power in that mindset. I am learning how to self-coach and making it a part of my daily life. It truly is amazing!
I started to do quiet time in our house during the afternoon. The girls need to be separated into their own rooms and play with toys, read, do puzzles, and use their creativity (while I get time to myself). Well I feel like I have to teach them step by step. I started out putting their alarm for 5 min (hopefully building them to an hour) and the whole time Desi cried in her room waiting until the clock turned green which means the time is up and she can get out of her room. As soon as it turned green so was happy again and came to me. I was in the hallway making sure that they stayed in their room laughing how quickly the time went and realizing how this is going to be an interested experience building their stamina for a full hour. The next day I had to do a reward and so they got an oreo!
Building the big E with q tips!
Storytime
This picture came up on our tv where is shows pictures from the blog. Desi saw this picture of Derek and said, "Look at Daddy! He looks cute!" ha ha.
I am learning to let loose on my to-do list and spend more time with the kids. I try to do games, activities, and stories with the kids throughout the day. It is hard to learn to let go of the house and chores, but it is so worth it to build my relationship with the kids.
Feed the Elephant Game
Learning to recognize the letters and saying the sound of letters A-F
These gold coins are a big deal to Ashlyn and Brinley. They get to earn them at school and if they get a certain amount they get a prize.
While we were swimming on Saturday, an ant bit me and my finger swole up. I was getting nervous my at one point, my finger was turning blue and I didn't want to cut my ring off.
Every morning we have been going on walks. I am trying to build up my stamina to run again. Today I ran 30 sec. 4 times. (instructions by my physical therapist). It has been a lesson of patience to rebuild my hip to run again. I will get there sooner than later. I don't want to get old!!!! I have gained a greater appreciation for my body and the simple things it can do.
Derek and I have made a decision to invest in our health. Derek has had this experience where he feels like he has been successful in all areas of his life except his physical health. He has spend many hours researching his method of how he wants to start his journey of health and exercise. I know that when Derek sets his mind to achieve something- he does it! I decided I better get on board too. As I started this journey I have recognized that I have a lot of fear in weight loss. I am working through this mental block. There are days that I feel like I got this and days that are harder, but I am learning and not giving up. Derek has really helped me a lot with my mindset! We are learning to listen to our bodies when we eat, pushing ourselves with exercise, and being each others cheerleaders.
Derek has lost weight and I am back to what I weighed before I got pregnant with Emmett. I still have about 30 lbs to lose and I am giving myself until Emmett's 1st birthday to get to my ideal/realistic weight. We are both focusing on the journey and not a quick fix (which is usually the way that Derek has lost weight in the past.) I have three mantras with this health journey "Slow and steady win the race" and "By small and simple things, great things are brought to pass." and "Righteous routines and Holy habits (can apply this spiritually or physcially (eating nutritious food, smaller portions, exercise, water, plenty of sleep, etc.)
Today we had a MOPS playdate and we thought it was at a splash pad and it turned out that the splash pad is closed and it was at the park next to the splash pad. So when we got home from our sweaty park playdate we decided to do some cannonballs in the swimming pool and enjoy it!
Thank you Grandma Martinson for the fun Halloween package! The girls were so excited!
These two girls slept in their shirts that Grandma made for them and wanted to wear it all day today!
This little guy loves jumping around!
I recently finished reading the book by Tom Christofferson about being the Gay Mormon and it has really touched my heart. My perspective has been changed for the better and I loved the theme of charity and love, especially for your family. For FHE I wanted all the kids to feel very loved and have them know how special they are to our family. We did a game I call, "Swallow your pride". Someone sits in a special chair in front of everyone and we go around the room and share reasons why we love the person in the chair. The girls light up when we play this game and it brings the spirit to our hearts and home. I feel so blessed to call these amazing people my family. I love them so much!
Puzzle Time!
I haven't got this out since we moved here. Claire and Desi loved it!
