Winter Vacation

I'm a week late on this vacation update- Here's what 4 kids look like after taking "the scenic route" (which took about 2 hours longer than taking the Mass Pike- but we loved it anyway Daddy!!) to Rome NY to eat dinner at Denny's. I know, Denny's would not have been our top pick, but when you're in Rome NY, you eat what you find! Lately, we cannot get Brayden to smile for a picture. He always pulls a weird face, so when we teased him about it- this is what happens... He's got a great smile!
All the kids wanted to do was swim in the hotel's indoor pool-
The entire family Monday night-

The kids and I Tuesday morning (for 3 hours while Adam was working)- The kids love to make bubble beards in the hot tub. I remember those days. I used to annoy my sister to no end with my bubble antics!
Again Tuesday night (with Daddy only- I stayed poolside reading a book!) and Wednesday night at our hotel in Buffalo, NY-

AND THE BIGGEST AND BEST THING TO COME OUT OF THE TRIP-
And
So cute!

Other highlights include-
Chair Beds-

A visit to Fort Stanwix National Monument

Watching Old Looney Toons Cartoons from the front row of the Mezzanine of the Capitol Theatre in downtown Rome-

Dinner at Jim's Steakhouse, which had a huge cow statue out front and this old carosel in the bar (very random)

And finally, what could be better than Niagara Falls in the winter?



If you ask my kids, they'll tell you the hotel's indoor pool is much better!

This is the news...

We had some friends over last Sunday for a Super Bowl Party- thus my lack of blogging. We had a great time- unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures.

Bekah's indoor soccer season came to an end Monday night. They had a fun time and learned a lot throughout the season! Adam called it a 'building year' as none of the girls had ever played indoor before and they let the other teams win every game! It didn't get them down though and Bekah is looking forward to playing on a travel team this spring (with Dad still as her coach!)

Our long awaited appointment with the pediatric otolaryngologist (have no idea if I spelled that right) came on Thursday. Even the specialist cannot see Emma's ear drum! We will start to unravel the great hearing mystery with the removal of her tonsils and adenoids, either late this week or early next. While they have her under, they will also check if she has fluid in her ears. If yes, they will put in tubes. If no, we will return for a CAT scan once Emma has fully recovered from her surgery. The Dr suggested that Emma will need to stay out of school and all activities for 2 WEEKS. It felt like a death sentence the moment it left her mouth! Has anyone else had their school-age child's tonsils and adenoids removed and if so, what was their recovery like? Adam and I both feel confident in our Dr and the path ahead!

All the kids were very excited for Valentine's this year. Cooper and Emma were both eagerly awaiting their class parties- as was I, since I am the party Mom for both classes and the Valentines party is the final party of the year. Both parties were great!
I made my usual pink heart pancakes with bacon and OJ for breakfast today. Adam and I gave each of the kids a valentine candy-since their valentine cards for school could not include any treats.


Here's the kids all ready for church! (We had to stay after church today for a parent meeting, so the kids were all packing a lunch- Brayden chose cold pizza!)


We have Winter Break this week- so the kids and I are going with Adam on his business trip to upstate NY until Thursday. It will be fun to get away- even for a few days!

COLD

Another crazy week has blown by here in MA- literally. Last Sunday, the high temperature for the day was 54 degrees with 1.5 inches of rain. It melted off a huge amount of snow and left the kids with sad faces. By Thursday night, an arctic front moved in. With a daily high of 19 degrees and sustained winds between 25-35mph, we have been freezing! Friday night Brayden participated in the Scouting Klondike Derby. They have been building their sled and prepping for the event for the past month. (I even donated my ski's to the cause- which was VERY hard to do, since my brother had given them to me for Christmas my Junior year in high school- size 220 Red Pre's. I thought I was awesome on those baby's! Sorry Trav) When we dropped him off at the church, it was 7 degrees with wind chills nearing -10! I could not believe I was sending my boy out into those temperatures! He survived the event without any harm- I'm thankful to his scouting leaders who braved the cold to give him this character building experience.
This week Bekah's Strings class at school recorded a Podcast. Please take a minute to listen to it HERE then please fill out the form and let the class know you heard them. This is a great program and Bekah is always excited to add a pin to the "We Have Been Heard Here" map. (You only get to add pins when someone fills out the form online and says they know you) In the podcast, it is Bekah who says, "Please remember to click the link to tell us where you are" and she is the one cello!

Journaling=Blogging

I realized this week that I am about as good at writing a blog as I am at keeping a
journal... so, I made a choice. Instead of adding one more thing to the increasingly long list of mother guilt, I have committed to write on this blog once each week and count it as a step in the right direction. We'll see how it really works out!
I also know that if I try to go back and recount all the things that have happened in over six months since I last posted, I will become discouraged. So here's a quick look at some of the things Happening Now (or in the recent past)!
We hosted Thanksgiving Dinner at our house this year with our friends the Forsyth's, the Foate's, and Four Missionaries currently serving in our ward. Here's a shot of the adult table! Notice- Brayden made the cut!!

Once we got our Christmas tree up, Chloe took up residence under the tree. She was hilarious! She was quite annoyed when the presents blocked her spot.

Adam and I had the chance to get away to Philadelphia for his companies Holiday Party. We were so thankful to good friend who kept our kids (again) so we could enjoy this weekend on AGI!! This is the view of the city from the front of the Art Museum-

The kids wrote to Santa to ask if he could come a day early to our house so we could get on the road to TX. We celebrated Christmas Eve a day early with the missionaries. We acted out the nativity and everyone got PJ's! Thanks Gram and Papa for the super soft PJ's for the kids!

We got in the car by 11:30am on Christmas Eve day to begin our 30.5 hour drive to Dallas TX for our nephew's wedding. Here's what the first hour of the car ride looked like from Emma's point of view...


Emma loves to take pictures. As the wedding luncheon was wrapping up, she asked if she could borrow the camera to take a picture of her favorite Cousin-in-law. Here's a small sampling of the photos I found...





We had a great time in TX with almost all of Adam's family there! Our kids loved all the cousin time, but were excited to get back to our home and the snow. And I am proud to report that after two 30.5 hour car rides(straight through), we still like each other!
Adam is super busy with work, with soccer, and with Young Mens. I am staying busy with the gym, volunteering, and Relief Society. Brayden has been learning to ski. He is really having fun with it and is happy to report that he made it up the lift and back down the mountain, several times, without screaming! Bekah has been playing indoor soccer ever since the snow came and really likes her team and her coach(Adam)! She has made a goal to practice her cello for 25 minutes everyday and she's doing great! Cooper, too, made a goal to practice his viloin everyday and it's really paying off. His playdate calendar now includes a waiting list! Emma still loves kindergarten. In our town, Kinder is half day. She was in afternoon, but on Jan 19th, all the classes switched. I am loving having her in morning kinder!
In mid December, we realized that Emma's tonsils were very enlarged and that she snored worse than Papa or Grandpa Jarny! I took her to the Dr- they strep tested her and it was negative. I was told to wait 2 weeks to see if it improved. I told the Dr I thought she couldn't hear very well and was dismissed. So after 5 weeks of being dismissed by the Pediatrician, we decided to take things up a notch! We are still waiting to see an Ear, Nose, and Throat Doc, but was able to get her into an Audiologist over a week ago. It was confirmed that Emma has severe hearing loss. Her inner ear is fine, but somewhere in the outer or middle ear, things are getting lost. The Audiologist thinks that Emma's hearing loss may not be linked to the enlarged tonsils as she has made many adaptations on her own. (Did you ever notice how Emma had two volumes? Loud or asleep? Did you ever notice how Emma acts like she's ignoring you? She might look right at you when you talk to her and then not respond? Did you ever notice how Emma likes to get right up in your face and touch you when she's talking? I could go on and on) We are hopeful and prayful as we look forward to her upcoming Dr. appointment!
Here's a cute picture of Emma with our snowman named Fred!

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...