Stron-go

So, if you haven't already figured it out- Emma is quite the character. She has learned to rhyme and is starting to understand small nuances in language. Thus has begun her new trend to give EVERYONE a different name. One of our friends, with the last name of Cherry, Emma calls Mrs. Lemon! She thinks it's hilarious. Brayden's friend, Doug, came over for a sleepover last week. Emma thinks Doug sounds like Dove, so she called him "Bird".
The best name however has gone to Adam. About a month ago, Emma started calling Adam Stron-go (she says it like the word strong, with a heavy accent on the G and an O on the end). She informed us that Daddy was Stron-go because he can lift heavy things- like a truck or MOM!! (Thanks Emma, that's a real self esteem booster!) I am now Mrs. Stron-go and she calls herself Stron-go Jr.

Here are a few highlights from our summer so far-
Visit to Philadelphia and the Zoo-



AGI Picnic and NEBU Kids museum day-




Family visit to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall-


4th of July that started with a Flag ceremony in front of our house, moved on to a long bike ride/jog, then on to a pool party/BBQ, and ended with an attempt to watch the Boston Fireworks on TV, but everyone fell asleep before they started!



Visit to the Dentist that ended with no cavities and balloon animals for all!



Teaching a few too many classes at the gym-


A trip to the Boston Children's Museum with some friends from the ward- and Emma ended up with the camera most of the time!




And participating in a "Welcome to the Valley" celebration for the Youth from our Stake who just completed a 3 day pioneer trek. You can watch a video about it here.


We are excited to have Adam's parents coming out to visit/help us this Saturday! Next week, Adam leaves for High Adventure with the Young Men (a canoe trip to the Boston Harbor islands) and I leave for a week of Girls Camp the same day! Emma turns 5 this month, Adam turns about 30 years older than Emma next month, followed by Braydens 12th birthday and Bekahs 9th! My oldest son will be in Young Men's in less than one month and my youngest will start Kindergarten on Sept 8th! When did I get this old?

Dear Carly-

Thank you for reaching out to me! I had fallen into blogging 'outer darkness' and your hand of fellowship has saved me. Now, it might be a while before I move my name off the less active list, but I am on the road back. We have been extremely busy with all the end of school year stuff. Here are a few snipits of our life...

My birthday- Gram and Papa's visit to MA and our trip to all the church history sites in Palmyra, NY- AGI overnight trip to PA and the Phillies Game- Cooper's 7th Birthday and Pretend Sleepover Party- Brayden received his Scout Badge- Emma, still being Emma- Bekah's First Cello Concert- Adam finished up another season of coaching Bekah's soccer team! Go Blue Tigers!
Brayden preformed in his school band concert. Second man in on the left hand side (sitting)


Emma graduated from Preschool! Yeah for Kindergarten in the Fall!! Cooper had is First Grade Author's Tea, where he got to share the book he wrote and all his other writings from the year. I took another 3 day training, this time for Group Kick. This is me with my trainer, Natalie Weber in the middle and another instructor from my gym, Kristy. A Happy Father's Day to my fabulous father, to my incredible father in law, and to my sweetie. The kids and I pampered Adam with a Jarnagin Spa... Then we grilled our steaks in the rain... All Adam said he wanted for Father's Day was black socks! (boring.) So we bought nine pair of black sock varieties and tied them to a long piece of ribbon and strung it up like a garland in the living room...

April Fool's

Our kids thoroughly enjoy April Fools Day. I heard, "Mom, you have a spider (tree, house, bird, etc....) on your head" repeatedly all day! We have a family tradition of wearing funny hats to dinner and eating a surprise dinner. I think this year the kids had the most fun of any year yet!

We made a whole tray of the 'fish sticks' for Bekah to take to Achievement Days that night and they were a huge hit!





I started teaching at a new gym here in Westford called Boost Fitness and last Monday I was offered the job of Group Exercise Director. I was very excited, though it is going to be a lot of work too! We took a Group Power training over the weekend and it was very intense. Four of these instructors are brand new to Group Exercise and it is now my job to train them and get them ready to teach... no pressure!

Astronaut Emma

Emma's preschool is amazing! She has three wonderful teachers and they always do really neat/fun/creative things with the kids. Last week they talked about outer space and astronauts- Emma loved it! This is what she looked like when I picked her up from school-




For the past several weeks at family night we have been talking about building houses!
Week 1- a firm foundation (all the spiritual things we need to do to be strong
Week 2- the structure (rules and so forth that help our family run smooth)
Week 3- the furnishings and decoration (giving service, missionary work, developing talents)
Each week we have been building a LEGO house to go with it and these were the finished products-

There's Only So Much A Man Can Take!

While Adam was living in Pennsylvania and the kids and I were still in Corpus Christi, Adam only got to come home every other weekend. One of the times he called home he told me to ask the kids if they even remembered what he looked like. The kids and I were driving in the car and Cooper pipes up from the back of the van, "Yeah, he's got short hair and he's almost bald!" We laughed and laughed about that, though I'm not sure Adam was laughing as hard as the rest of us.
Since then, Emma has taken to calling him a baldie. At least once a week she will refer to him as "Baldie" and we all laugh- but again, maybe not Adam.
Last night, we were sitting around the table eating dinner and the kids got talking about the color of everyone's hair. Emma said that Bekah's hair was sandy. Then she said that my hair looks like chocolate. She then looks at Adam and says, "Dad, you hair is just all grey". We laughed and laughed and laughed. When Adam asked if his hair was really all grey, Bekah, trying to make him feel better, said, "Your hair's not all grey Dad. It's just that you don't have very much so it makes the grey ones stand out more."
We love you Daddy! Even if the stress of providing for us all is making your hair fall out and turn grey!

Bekah and Adam recently at the Father/Daughter activity at church.

Adam, Cooper, and Adam's brother, Andy, last year at Six Flags!

Adam and I in Gloucester last April.

Fish update- So the fish we bought over a week ago- all dead! We bought them on Saturday night. Sunday morning, Brayden's was dead. Monday morning, the other three were dead too! Sad morning at our house. Moral of the story, don't buy fish at Petco! I bought ONE goldfish on St. Patricks day at a local pet store and the kids named her Lucky. She is strong and healthy and the kids are enjoying taking turns feeding her.

Illness update- Emma woke up this morning with eye infections in BOTH eyes! She was picking off the crust from her left eye as she came to breakfast. I got her in to the Dr. at 8:20 and already started her drops. She was very sad she had to miss school today. It is her favorite!

Why Mormons Build Temples

Here is a beautiful video explaining the importance of temples in my family's life. I know that through the restoration of the Gospel our families can be blessed.

Spring is coming!!

We had a beautiful day here today. Temperatures were in the 50's and the kids were in heaven! They rode their bikes and explored the woods on and off for about 6 hours! Cooper was a little afraid at first that he would not remember how to ride his bike, but the old adage is true- he was the one begging the other kids to go out and ride again. We live on a CIRCLE now, so it is really easy for the kids to ride! The kids were complaining before bed about their bums being sore from all the riding! Sore is good!!
Tonight while Adam was at Stake Priesthood meeting, the kids and I went to Petco to buy some new fish. They were having a sale on guppies- 5/$5.00! Emma got a black one and named it Peach. Cooper's is orange and named Toad. Bekah's is yellow and named Alex. And Brayden's is blue, named Blue Streak, but is calling him Streak for short! I'm hoping they don't die quickly. I thought we still had fish food, but realized when we got about 5 minutes from home that we had given our fish food away with our goldfish when we left TX. I'm hoping 4 tiny guppies can make it til Monday!

A Slackers Update

I have been neglecting my blog.... not because anything major has been going on in my life, but mainly we've been busy and I haven't made the time.
An update on Emma-
We had a follow-up last Thursday at our Pediatricians office. They take the labs, get the results, fax them to the specialists, and then if anything is life threatening, the specialists will call... no word yet, so things must be ok. We visit them again downtown next month. From all reports, Emma is getting better. To us, she is back to her normal self- for good or for bad!! Thank you again for all your love and prayers as we faced this new challenge.

In February, all the Massachusetts schools take off a week for Winter Break, so we headed down to Pennsylvania with Adam. The kids and I visited the Franklin Institute-

and Hershey's Chocolate world.

The day after we drove home, (Thursday)we went to the Museum of Science here in Boston with some friends from church. This is a picture of Bekah and Cooper watching the baby chicks hatch.

That Friday, we met up with our new friends, the Rains family, at the Burlington Mall for the master Lego builder event. The kids got to help make big lego bricks the master builder then used to build an 11 ft pirate. The event was going to last until Sunday, so we did not get to see the finished product, but the kids had a lot of fun.




The kids are all getting involved at school and with extra curricular activities-
Brayden-Trumpet in the school band, trumpet lessons, Tae Kwon Do, 11 year old Scouts
Bekah- Cello in the school Strings program, cellos lessons, achievement days, soccer starting soon!
Cooper- Violin lessons, soccer starting soon!
Emma- Storytime at library, Ballet (she is LOVING, did I say LOVING this!)
Adam- busy as ever with work, signed up to coach soccer, new calling at church that will keep him actively engaged (he has not been sustained yet-so no details)
Tynel- busy keeping everything running smoothly, started teaching GroupX again this week (check it out here plus a Saturday morning class), Young Women Girls Camp Director!!

Last Friday we took our kids down to the Children's Museum. We used to go there all the time with our good friends the Cunninghams, when we lived here before. They have totally redone the museum- I thought it was great, but Brayden says it's just not like it used to be!! Now he's getting old!








Saturday, Adam took the boys up to New Hamshire (which is 20 minutes from here and has no sales tax) to a basketball tournament sponsored by our church. Brayden and Coop watched Daddy play 3 games! Wow! They then went to buy the video game they have been saving up for! They are loving it! The girls and I decided to have a ladies day. (Emma cannot say GIRL- it comes out sounding like GORE, so she will always replace girl with lady) We started by painting the master bathroom, then we got fixed up and went for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe! We browsed around the mall and then they decided to spend their money at Build-A-Bear Workshop. We also bought a cookie on the way to the car. When we got home, it was warm enough that Bekah could ride her bike- it was a perfect ending to a perfect day.