March Madness

Just when I thought we might have a slow(er) month... Ha!  That's the last time I will be thinking that.  I think it turned out to be our busiest month yet. There was a 16-day stretch where we had something going every single day and night of the week.  It wouldn't be so bad if Kevin and I didn't both work (and commute), but it made for some really long days (and weeks), even though they were fun, too.

My Uncle Mike (from Tennessee) came up for a visit and to help out with some decisions concerning my grandma during the first week of March.  It was really great to see him and for him to meet Bristol. His visit seemed too short, it just went by so quickly.  Hopefully he will be back up again later this year... And hopefully with my cousin Shannon and her son Maddox, who will be making his debut to the world in July!  :)

We went to see Click Clack Moo at Flint Youth Theatre, which was fun!  Thanks to Poiriers for the tickets (for Carson's birthday).

We went to Mackenzey's 4th birthday party.  It was nice to see Jorie's new house.  We also went to a birthday party for our friend Ben's son, Anthony, who turned 2!  And we celebrated our niece's and nephew's birthdays on Easter Sunday.  It's very hard to believe that they are 11 and 9 now!

I went to Lansing for the Among Friends conference at Trinity Church with my sis-in-law Mary and my mother-in-law.  That was such a great conference!  I hope to attend more like it in the future.

We had parent-teacher conferences.  Carson is doing very well and is very smart.  He's been having some defiance/obedience issues this month, which we are trying to figure out.  Thankfully, they are very very minor, but we still need to deal with them.  However now I'm afraid he has a target on him, with his teachers watching him extra closely.. During the time(s) I was observing in the classroom (unbeknownst to Carson), I saw at least two other kids doing the same things Carson is getting called out for, only they were doing them to a higher degree... And they were overlooked.  That is kind of frustrating to see.  His teacher also told me that Carson's issues usually flare up when a certain other (problem) child starts something and gets Carson and some other boys to go along with it.  Hopefully we can resolve this.

We had our monthly small group meeting.  We are really enjoying our small group and have been very grateful that we decided to form one, yes even Kevin is.  :)  We're going to implement a small group family day in April, where we do something fun together with our small group families.  This will be in addition to our small group (adult) meetings.  We're really looking forward to it!

We went to an Easter egg hunt at church and celebrated Easter with both sides of our families. Carson had an Easter party at preschool, too.  We also had beautiful services at church during Holy Week.  We feel very blessed to have found such a great church and to have been welcomed into it so warmly.

I was taking Zumba one night a week with our neighbor, Kerri.  We also went to some boxing classes together that were really cool.  Zumba has now ended and I am going to try to get to boxing at least once a week for awhile, I think.

Kevin started playing basketball up at church every Wednesday night.  He's been having a great time with that.

We had a couple of play dates with preschool friends, which are always fun.

We had two Kindergarten roundups - one for Lake Fenton and one for St. Paul.  We are still unsure as to what we should do.  We have applied for Lake Fenton School of Choice.  We are kind of thinking we will start Carson there and see how he does.  He wants to go to both.  He really enjoyed both schools a lot.  He loves the idea of going to the same school as Jace and Lake Fenton is a great school district (it has surpassed Grand Blanc by leaps and bounds from what I understand and is #1 in our area now).  But Carson is not crazy about losing Jesus time.  He says "Mom, I am ONLY 5 years old... I have a LOT to learn about Jesus still."  I think it's the only time he considers himself ONLY 5, lol!  So we'll see...

We also closed on our house refinance, finally!  It was a long process, but well worth it!

Even though winter is hanging around a little later than normal, we have had quite a few nice days.  We went on several bike rides and walks in the neighborhoods by our house.  Spring break started and Kevin had Good Friday off, so the boys went on a bike ride on one of the trails nearby. They rode about 5 miles and Carson could have still kept going.  He is loving his new bike!

One Fine February

We had another busy month (in February).  But it was a lot of fun, too!

We went to Open Gym at church, which is put on at least once a month during the winter for the preschoolers.  It’s held on a Friday  night for a couple of hours with lots of fun indoor activities to run off some steam and get some extra play time in with your preschool buddies.  Carson loves it and Kevin and I have fun talking with all the other parents.  Bristol even enjoys it quite a bit – she just gets such a kick out of watching all the kids run and play. 

Bristol got to experience her first Calvin basketball game when we attended the Calvin v. Trine game for Grandpa’s birthday.  Unfortunately, sickness kept half of the family home and it only ended up being Grandma, Grandpa, Joel, Uncle Dan, and us.  But we still had a lot of fun.  Bristol loved the game!  She just loves watching sports, though… football is her favorite, but she really enjoys basketball, as well.  Carson and Joel had a great time together, too.  We all went to Panera for dinner after the game before heading home.  Bristol did really well in the car this time.  She didn’t make it quite the whole way there or back… but she made it much further than she had previously.  (Since then she’s gotten even better… I think we may finally be over our despise of the car seat phase… I hope). 

We were Family of the Day for the first time at church.  This means we greet people and hand out programs at the center entrance to church, read the Old Testament and Epistle readings, help collect the offering, and take the offering forward to be blessed.  We’ve done this a few times since then.  It’s kind of fun.  J

The SuperBowl was the first Sunday in February.  We were invited over to some friends’ house from Faith.  We got to meet several other families that we hadn’t had the chance to meet yet, which was fun!  We all had a great time! 

Kevin had some medical procedures done to check on his kidney stones.  He had passed them, but the doctor did find some scar tissue webbing, which is good to be aware of.  He’ll now be going back to the urologist annually to have scans done to monitor the development of any future kidney stones. 

Carson had a Valentine’s Day party at Preschool, which I went in for.  The kids sang some songs for the parents, exchanged Valentine’s Day cards and enjoyed some yummy treats.  The teacher had asked all of the students to write out the names of their friends, and sign their own names to all of their cards.  Carson really enjoyed doing this and got it done pretty quickly.  They have 24 students in his class, so it was a lot of writing for him, but he did so great!  I was surprised how many of the students did not do this, though.  I think there were only 5 other students that wrote both names, and maybe only another 3 or 4 that only wrote their name.  The rest of the kids had their parents write out their cards.  I was kind of surprised by that…

We went to the Detroit Boat Show on the 16^th.  We looked at lots of nice boats and stopped in to see our friends at Aqua Sports Marine.  We talked to Jeff about the Silver Lake Ski Club – we’ll see if we end up joining this summer or not… its definitely a possibility and something we’re really interested in still.  Carson and Bristol picked out their favorite boat and Kevin picked out his.  The kids loved them!  It was a fun evening out and about. 

We had two birthday parties for Carson, which I mentioned in my last post. 

Both kids ended up sick, Bristol’s first time really.  Carson had a really bad ear infection and Bristol had a sinus infection.  They both had to go on antibiotics, but it didn’t end up being too bad.  I was kind of bummed that Bristol already has had her first round of antibiotics, though… considering Carson has only been on them 3 other times so far.  But hopefully she’ll follow suit and have pretty decent health like her big brother. 

We kicked off our Small Group with our first meeting on the 19^th.  Two other couples came, so there were six of us, which actually worked out really well.  Another couple has since joined us and attends regularly.  We also have two other couples in our group, but they have not yet been able to make it. 

I flew up to Sault Ste. Marie for work one day, which I wouldn’t normally mention except that I was admiring their snow!  They had 30 inches on the ground while I was there, 18 of which had fallen earlier that week.  It was beautiful!  It has been such a cold winter for us, but we really haven’t had THAT much snow.  If its going to be cold, I’d much prefer we have snow so that it’s nice to look outside and we can actually go outside and have some fun!  :)

We celebrated Grandma’s birthday with lunch after church one Sunday.  All of the east-side family met up for lunch at Taboon in Grand Blanc (Grandma’s choice, and an excellent one, at that!).  It was fun to get together and help Grandma feel special. 

We also had a couple of playdates with preschool friends, which are always fun!  I wish we had time for more of them! 

We played out in the snow whenever we had it and did lots of fun activities in the house, too.  We also took a trip to the library for story time. 

Lastly, I apologize for the quality of many of these pictures... they are mostly cell phone pics, as I forgot to take our camera with us most places. 

We have a 5 year old?? How can that be?!

Seriously.  Wasn't it just yesterday that our baby boy was born?  I really wish time would slow down because, as you can see from the pictures, he is no longer a baby... although I tell Carson all the time he'll always be my baby (after he has informed me that I can't call him "baby boy" anymore because he is a big boy now).  Sigh...

But yes, it's true.  Carson is now 5 years old... and has been for nearly 2 months now (oops!). 

We celebrated his birthday this year with two parties, one with Kevin's family and some friends on February 9th and one with my family on February 23rd.  The theme this year was soccer.  I didn't go all out with decorations this year, but I still think we had a couple of nice parties.  Its more about the people we celebrate with than the decor, anyway.  As long as the kids had fun, I'm happy.  And I think they did.  :)

Carson is still our smart, funny, silly, loving little guy.  He is very sensitive and caring.  He notices every little change.  If you get your hair cut, he is sure to notice, even if its just a trim.  He loves to be silly and make people laugh.  This can be good and bad... he often thinks he's being silly when he is being disobedient and thinks it is funny.

Carson had his well-child check-up and was 39 pounds (just under the 50th%) and was 43 1/2 inches tall (50th%).  Everything checked out well and as always, he impressed Dr. Akrawi with everything he knows and how well he behaved during his check-up.

Just this past winter, we inherited a Wii game system from Nana and Papa.  Up until this time, Carson had never really played any video games.  We've let him play some, though not often.  But he loves them.  And he's quite good, too.  We have been quite impressed.  But we don't like him to play the games too much and encourage all other activities before games.  He does love to play the Wii when he is allowed, though.

Carson also loves to play Legos still.  He disappears at times and we'll find him building with his Legos in his room.  He is quite creative in what he builds, too.  He'll re-create scenes from stories, tv shows, or the Wii games.

Carson also LOVES to draw and do art.  This is probably the thing he spends the most time on these days.  He draws lots of houses, cars, garages, barns, trees, clouds, people, and sprinklers, as well as other things, but those are definitely his favorite things to draw.  He has also been writing words and stories lately.  He just loves to create.  He builds all sorts of different creations out of construction paper.   He'll get an idea and head over to his art table to start cutting pieces of paper and gluing or taping them together to form some sort of creation.

The novelty of having a baby sister has yet to wear off.  Carson still ADORES his sister.  They are each other's favorite people and they both just light up when the see one another.  It is so sweet.  Carson is so devoted to her and loves to help Bristol learn new things.  He shares his toys quite well so far... but Bristol still isn't quite mobile enough to get into them without his knowing... so we will see how that changes once she is able to cause a little more trouble.  :)

Lastly, just to compare, I asked Carson the same questions I did last year to see what his current favorites and dreams are.  (Click this link to see his answers from last year). 

** FAVORITES:
Color:  green and purple (the combo, not separate)
Toy:  Legos and the Wii
Animal:  Panda bear
Song:  Jesus Loves Me
Book:  His kid's Bible
TV Show:  Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Game:  Lego Batman on the Wii
Fruit:  Grapes and apples
Vegetable:  Carrots
Snack:  Yogurt
Drink:  Milk and apple juice
Thing to do Outside:  Ride his bike, run around and explore, and play hide and seek
Thing to do at Preschool:  Look at stuff and learn at the science center, play with his friends
Holiday:  Easter
Season:  Summer

** What he wants to be when he grows up:  A house builder and a car builder.

Spring Bucket List - 2013

I never really planned on continuing these bucket lists each season, but I’ve kind of enjoyed doing them. So I figure I’ll continue them until they are no longer fun for me to do.  :)

Today marks the first official day of spring. Although you wouldn’t really know it with a temp in the 20s and a few inches of snow on the ground. Its crazy to think back to one year ago today when we were setting records with temps in the 80s! However, I am very thankful we are not following in last year’s footsteps with our weather patterns this year. Michigan agriculture (namely the fruit industry) took an immense negative hit due to the extra warm and early spring last year. Our own personal home orchard and fruit did, as well. So in that respect, I happily accept the snow that is on the ground… well sort of.  :)

So anyway, here is what I hope we’ll have the opportunities for this spring… again, in absolutely no particular order (other than that of which it comes to mind).

1. Make a decision as to which school Carson will attend for Kindergarten and take care of all necessary paperwork.

2. Celebrate Easter with family and convey the true meaning to our kids. (We don’t do the Easter bunny at all, really.)

3. Celebrate birthdays with family and friends.

4. Go bowling together as a family.

5. Softball season starts at the beginning of May (through our church). Kevin will be playing, but the kids and I hope to make it to all (or most) of the games, too.

6. Visit a science center or museum together as a family.

7. Take family bike rides as weather allows.

8. Plan and plant a small vegetable garden. Encourage Carson to help.

9. Take a road trip.

10. Visit LegoLand Discovery Center in Schaumburg, IL.

11. Finish the kitchen floor and trim work.

12. Visit a local park that we have never been to before.

13. Spring cleaning – continue to clean out at least one cupboard, cabinet, or drawer per week (4 are done so far); continue to clean baseboards in one room per week (dining and living rooms are done so far); continue washing walls in one room per week (dining and living rooms done so far); clean large appliances inside and out; organize freezers; wash windows inside and out; wash curtains and blinds; and other tasks.

14. Shop at the farmers’ market once they start up in May.

15. Fly a kite.

16. Pursue photo business logo development and branding. Prepare to implement new website.

17. Feed the ducks at a local park.

18. Make a bird feeder with the kids.

19. Have a family game night once a month.

20. Plan Bristol’s 1st birthday party.

21. Play in the rain and/or mud puddles.

22. Visit the library for story time and/or other kids’ activities.

23. Build on Carson’s artistic abilities by encouraging even more art and craft projects. Take him shopping to the craft store for new ideas.

24. Have fun with sidewalk chalk outdoors. Play hopscotch.

25. Go on family hikes as often as weather and schedule permits.

26. Visit the baby chicks and ducklings at Tractor Supply Co.

27. Make garden stepping stones with the kids.

28. Go to Tulip Time in Holland.

29. Go to a butterfly exhibit (MSU Childrens Gardens or Fred Meijer Gardens or Dow).

30. FaceTime with friends and family from out of state.

Winter Bucket List - How Did We Do?

Well, since winter officially ends this week, I figured I would post a quick update on how we did with our winter bucket list.  We did pretty well and accomplished almost everything.  It's been a busy, but fun winter!

1.  Celebrate Christmas!  Convey the true meaning to our kids (though we do Santa, as well... but with a very limited focus).  Spend time with our families at our Christmas parties.  Check!  We had a lovely Christmas season and spent lots of time with all sides of our families. 

2.  Build a snowman.  Check!  We have made several.  Some of them were even painted.  :)

3.  Go sledding.  Check! 

4.  Teach Carson to ice skate and/or ski.  Check... well sorta.  We bought Carson some skis and spent quite a bit of time on them outside.  I wouldn't call him an accomplished skier yet, but he's learning and doing better each time.  :)

5.  Drive around neighborhoods to admire all of the beautiful Christmas lights.  Check!  Many times over. 

6.  Meet up with family from the west side in the Lansing area.  This did not end up working out, unfortunately... at least not with the kids.  I did meet my SIL in Lansing for a conference called Among Friends, though.  

7.  Make snow angels in freshly fallen snow.  Check!  This was done every time it snowed... even when we just got a dusting, Carson wanted to go make snow angels.  :)

8.  Have a snowball fight.  Check!

9.  Build a snow fort.  Check!  We've made a few snow forts out of the snow plowed from the driveway. 

10.  Do some snow painting!  Check!  We painted snow red, green, and blue on a couple of different occasions.  Sometimes we even painted the snowman.  

11.  Make Christmas ornaments.  Check!  We didn't do as many as I'd have liked, but we did do a couple.

12.  Go to a snow/ice sculpture festival (Frankenmuth?).  This did not happen.  We thought about going up to Frankenmuth for their festival, but decided to just spend the day playing outside at home instead.  We did go to the Detroit Boat Show, though... not quite a snow/ice sculpture festival, but it was still a lot of fun.  :)  

13.  Pop some fresh popcorn, get the sleeping bags out, and have a family movie night/camp out in the living room.  We did this, sort of.  We didn't end up camping out in the living room because Carson didn't want to that night.  But we did pop popcorn and watch a movie that Carson picked out (Lion King).  

14.  Attend at least one Calvin basketball game.  Check!  

15.  Celebrate Carson's 5th birthday!  Check!  We had two parties, one with each side of the family.

16.  Celebrate birthdays for Papa, Grandpa, Daddy, Grandma, and Nana. (As well as some cousins' birthdays, too.)  Check!  We went to dinner for Papa's bday, a basketball game for Grandpa's, had some cupcakes at home for Daddy, went to lunch after church for Grandma, and we'll do something for Nana this week (her birthday is Thursday).  We've also been to a birthday party for Mackenzey and we're waiting to hear if anything is being planned for our niece and nephew's birthdays that are coming up in the next couple of weeks.  

17.  Take Carson to see a movie in the theater.  We did not get to do this.  

18.  Attend a live show (Wharton Center family series?).  Check!  We went to the Shrine Circus on January 16th.  

19.  Install new kitchen floor.  Check!  Although it still needs the finishing touches, but the main floor is in.  :)

20.  Pursue photo business branding, new website, Valentine's Day mini sessions, etc.  I'm pursuing it, but haven't made any substantive changes quite yet.  Maybe soon.  I am working with a friend who is a graphic artist to develop a logo to begin the branding process.  

A Busy January

We started off January with a relaxing New Years Day spent at home.  We just enjoyed some family time and took it easy most of the day.  It was nice to have some down-time after a busy holiday season before returning to work the following day.

Since all of the schools in Genesee County closed a couple of days early prior to Christmas break, Carson had his preschool Christmas party on Wednesday, January 2nd and his Christmas program on Friday, January 4th.  I went in for his party at school.  I thought it might be really strange, to be celebrating Christmas so late... but it really didn't feel that strange at all.  The kids sang some songs for the parents and did a small enactment of the Christmas Story, exchanged some gifts with their teachers, and ate some tasty treats.  It was a lot of fun and so cute, as always.

We all went to Carson's Christmas program on Friday night, too.  We were so excited that much of our families could be there to support Carson and make him feel extra special, too!  Thanks, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Danny, Aunt Julie, Uncle Jason, Anna, Joel, Jonah, Nana, Papa, Great Poppy, Uncle Mike and Aunt Jeri!!  Carson sang very well this year - you could definitely pick his voice out of the group, LOL!  The program was very nice and it was a good time.

We took a trip down to Sterling Heights to visit our friend, Ben, and his son, Anthony.  This was our first time seeing Ben's new condo - which was really nice!  It was great to see them and catch up.

Kevin found out he had a kidney stone on the 8th.  Thankfully his pain levels were not as bad as others have experienced with kidney stones, but it was still quite a discomfort for him and lasted most of the month. 

We got to see Auntie Jaime and Grant while they were home one weekend.  Auntie Jaime is expecting baby #2 in May and this was probably the last time we'll see them until they have the baby.  As always, our time together felt way too short, but we take what we can get.  :) 

We had our neighbors over for dinner one night, which was a lot of fun.  We had a nice time visiting and Carson and Jace had a blast together.  They played with all of Carson's toys, built Legos, played the Wii, and just ran around having fun. 

We took Carson to the Shrine Circus.  We left Bristol home with Nana and we met our neighbors there.  It was Carson's first trip to the circus and he had a lot of fun!  He got to ride an elephant for the first time, too!

Bristol came down with her first cold.  Luckily there was only one rough day and it didn't end up being that bad of a cold.


My parents bought us a new kitchen floor for Christmas.  So we spent a weekend installing it.  It's still not completely done, but its mostly done and looks great!  Such a big improvement over the last floor!!

I hosted a Thirty One party with some friends and family on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which was fun!  Its always good to have a girls' night!

I also started taking some Zumba classes twice a week with my neighbor, Kerri.  We've been having a lot of fun, all while getting a decent workout, too.  :)

In addition to all of this, we played in the snow, made art projects, went on some winter nature walks, went to story time at the library, had a play date, and did lots of baking and cooking with the kids.  Carson still enjoys helping to bake and cook and Bristol is starting to get very interested in it already, too.  Mostly, I think she just wants to do everything her brother does, but she does enjoy it.  :)

Bristol is continuing to be a good eater.  This was her first time trying green beans and it was so funny! She now eats them with no complaint, but it took quite a few times trying them.