I started writing this on Instagram, but realized it was a little bit too long of a story. And it's one I want to remember. I just became the newest architectural designer for Ezra Lee Design + Build! This is significant in many ways, but let me just say that I have said I wanted to work for him for years.
Ezra Lee is an awesome design build company. I became aware of him because he usually has a home in the Parade of Homes every year. I always loved his style and how his homes stood out from the standard, boring, Utah home. They were always unique and well thought out. Then, four years ago, I saw him sitting in the office of one of his parade homes, so I decided to talk to him. I told him how much I like his designs and about how I have a degree in architecture. He said I should send over my portfolio because he is always looking for good talent. Of course, at the time, I was barely pregnant with Wes, my oldest was only 10 and it just wasn't the right time for me to work. I didn't send anything over.
I continued to admire him from afar and always had it in the back of my mind that I would love to work for him someday. I mean, I imagined myself working for some architecture firm, but this one was the one I really wanted. I even remember talking with one of my best friends a couple of years ago about how hard my little kids were. She said, "I think you should go work for that Ezra Lee guy, even it's only for a few hours and even if all of your income goes to pay for child care." I remember thinking about it, but it still wasn't the right time.
Throughout those years, I started getting into designing for other people on the side. It started when a friend asked if I could give her some ideas for finishing her basement. I decided to do a 3D sketchup model for her. Actually, I gave her a few different ideas to chose from. They loved being able to visualize the space in 3D. That was the beginning of my doing a bunch of other designs for people. Though I never advertised, I had various jobs through word of mouth. During that time, I got really good at and fast at Sketchup. I also began designing furniture plans in Sketchup.
Fast forward to the beginning of this year. I felt strongly that I should restart my website and put all of my plans, architecture and home projects on it. Jared helped me work out a lot of the website details and I started focusing on Clever Compositions (my website/business name). Then, one day at church they announced that our stake was starting some self reliance classes and for some reason, Jared and I decided to go. We had no idea why we were there and at that first meeting had to chose one of the four courses. We chose the Starting and Growing Your Own Business class and got assigned to a group. We both went the first time, but it was the same night as racquetball, and Jared didn't really have a business idea like I did, so I continued going without him. It was a 12 week course and it was excellent! I really explored so many different thing in that class and got out of my comfort zone a lot. Our facilitators had started 14 companies over the years and were so inspiring! I really feel like I was in the class and with the people I was with for a reason. In the process of the class, I added more things to the website. I thought that I would be able to work on designs for basements and kitchen/bathroom remodels if I just advertised my services, but I never got to that point.
Instead, something entirely different happened...
In June, I went to the Parade of Homes (because I wouldn't miss it for almost anything) and I went through the house of Ezra Lee. I saw him in the garage as I was leaving, but of course didn't talk to him. When I got home that night, I saw a job listing for Ezra Lee for their architecture department (because I follow them on Facebook). It was my perfect job, except that it was full time, so I didn't apply. I kept thinking about the job for a week and finally decided that I should just go back to that parade home to see if Ezra was in the garage again (he was). I just wanted to get my foot in the door for the future and for him to know who I was. He told me he had just filled the job an hour before, which was fine because I couldn't do full time anyway. But I kept talking to him and had a great conversation. I may have mentioned that I always said I would work for him (I still can't believe I said that!) It came up that they use Revit (a 3D modeling program that I haven't used since I was in school over 8 years ago). For some reason, he suggested that I could maybe come in to the office to relearn Revit since they had a couple of extra licenses and an extra desk. He also told me to send my portfolio over to him and Kelly, the head of architecture.
I spent the weekend working on my resume and portfolio and sent it in that Tuesday. Ezra emailed back and said they would get back to me. Kelly called me on Friday and asked if I could come in for an interview that same day. We had a great talk as well. They said they don't usually like to hire people for part time work, but I said it would be ideal to come in Monday through Friday in the mornings (when Hallie was at kindergarten and Wes was at preschool). That seemed to be okay for them, as long as I was there every day. He brought up the idea that I could come in to learn Revit and asked if I wanted to start the next Monday. Then if they liked me after a couple of weeks, they could possibly hire me for part time work.
I came in for a week in the mornings going through training videos and designing my dream house in Revit. The next week Ezra and Kelly decided to give me a design challenge. They took me down to a site and which had a 10'x12' billboard on it. They said they wanted me to design a mixed use office building for that site and that they wanted it to go on that billboard (if it was good enough!) They said they have given people lots of opportunities to show design skills and they are almost always disappointed. They really wanted the very top talent. So, no pressure for me on this project!
I started designing and the next day Ezra looked in on it (even though it wasn't even close to being done). There were things he liked and other things he didn't like. He made a suggestion which I began to implement. By Friday, I had a design but it wasn't that great. Kelly saw it and asked if I liked it. I said no, and he said, "then delete it". That was a really rough day because I knew this was my chance to show them what I could do and either be hired or not. I was kind of stressed. I came home that day and worked all weekend on a design. I put a board together to present to them and Monday morning showed Ezra. Amazingly, he loved it. And so did Kelly. That was a huge relief! He gave me some suggestions and said that I had a lot to do that day. That's when I said, "Or I could just leave because I don't actually work here." At that point, Kelly said he would have a chat with the finance guy and Ezra and give me a job offer the next day. They said they really liked me and were impressed with what I was able to do.
Today I accepted the offer and even got back pay for the work I did last week :) I still can't even believe all that has happened in such a short period of time. It really is my dream job. It is about 8 minutes from my house (did I mention the office is in one of the houses they designed?--it is so awesome!) and I kind of set my own hours, with lots of flexibility. There are four people in the architecture department and three of us are in a room together. They are all really nice and helpful. They just really make me feel comfortable and like I am supposed to be there. They are working on 3 and 4 million dollar custom homes that are so awesome! The job allows me to be creative and use my skills, and it definitely challenges me continually. When I am there, time goes by so fast. We are all so focused on our design work. It is so much more than just a job to me, because I continually think about what I can do to make designs better.
I have felt kind of envious of moms with jobs for a long time. It didn't even matter what the job was, but just the fact that they were doing something with their lives instead of just kids and housework made me envious. I would even look at different random jobs thinking, maybe I could just do that job... But then I would always remind myself that when it was time for me to get a job, that I should do something I love and that I went to school for, architecture. But just the thought of going through all the applying and interviewing process was awful! I always prayed that Heavenly Father would prepare the right job for me when the time was right.
I really feel like this was an answer to my prayers. I didn't even know that I would be getting a job right now, but I feel like Heavenly Father did. And everything seemed to fall into place at the right time. Even if this had happened two months ago, I could not have made it work with two kids at home. The timing of it being summer, when my older kids could watch the younger kids during the day made it the perfect time. And the fact that I had done that self-reliance class and had my portfolio ready to send over was another blessing. And just the "coincidence" of Ezra being there at the exact moment that I decided to go up there. And the fact that they had had a couple of people from the architecture department leave within the last couple of months made them have an opening at this very moment in time. I think about my vacations that I planned. None of them were during this time period, even though they were originally supposed to be. And all of my kids' activities also worked around my morning schedule (Erin's oboe was before work and Alex's band was right after).
Then there was the issue of what to do with Wes while I was at work. I had signed him up for two different preschools back in February, so he would be gone Tues-Fri. The only issue is that he is not potty trained and he can't go to preschool if he's not. I really buckled down at the beginning of the summer, but he would not do it. I was exasperated! You just can not force someone to be potty trained unless they want to. I knew he wasn't ready, but just the thought of being home all day with him again next year was something I just could not go through. He is such a hard kid! I even had a breakdown about it the night before Kelly called me. I just had to figure out something. I started to realize that maybe there was a reason that he was being so stubborn about it, that maybe he wasn't supposed to go to preschool after all. Then one day last week, my cousin came to mind. She has a daycare in her home and she lives in Lehi. I contacted her and explained the situation and she said she could do that! It literally was a huge weight lifted off me and an answer to my prayers. I had been praying so long that Wes could get potty trained, when the answer to my prayers was actually something very different, but something that would ultimately be much better for my situation. If I'd done the preschools, I still would have had to find extra babysitters on Monday and after school (since it was only 2 hours a day). And, this daycare will be cheaper than the preschools. Just amazing!
Even the fact that Ezra had the idea to let me come in without getting paid was the perfect way for me to get to know them. It was so unconventional, and something they had never done before, but somehow it was the right thing. Kelly mentioned to me that Ezra believed in serendipity and that things happen for a reason, and people come into your life or your business at the right time for a reason. This was one of those times. He could have easily just told me he's not looking for part time and that he already filled the position anyway, but he let me stick my foot in the door and I'm so grateful he did!
Just look at some of his design work. It's amazing!
Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Difficult
Well, I can't tell you how taxing the last two and a half years have been. These two last kids have been very difficult! Wes, because he has been my worst sleeper as a baby. He only slept though the night 4 times in the first 11 months. He did a little better the next year until he learned how to climb out of his crib before he turned 2. Then it was impossible to put him to bed or give him naps. This is the first kid that hasn't had consistent naps at this age so I don't ever really get a break. Not only that, but he learned how to take off his diaper and clothes so he would run around naked, peeing and pooping wherever he pleased. We tried so many things, like backwards pajamas, onesies and duct tape around his diaper, all of which helped for the time. He is doing a bit better, but it is not uncommon to find him naked, especially outside... in the front. That leads me to another difficult phase, he can open any door so he goes out front all the time (where he could get hit by a car). We have to watch him constantly! He also likes to go knock on all the neighbors' doors, with or without clothes. He is a very active, brave kid so he climbs on everything and jumps off high things (like my dresser the other day). He is constantly doing things to give me a heart attack. So between all of his crazy antics, being naked and not sleeping or going to bed at a decent time, he has really been the most difficult baby we've had. I guess that's why Heavenly Father saved him for last. We may not have had so many kids otherwise.
Hallie has also been kind of a nightmare for the past two years. While she was a fine sleeper and napper as a baby, she has been the worst sleeper by far at this age. She is up the latest out of all the kids (her and Wes), but refuses to sleep in her bed or even her room. She has been sleeping on our floor for the past year or so. Jared and I are so tired that we just don't even care where she sleeps as long as she sleeps somewhere. But it is always a constant, nightly battle. The older kids go to bed when they are asked. Maybe it takes a few times of asking, but they go and they stay in bed. Hallie needs to be tucked in about 4 times and still gets up saying she is scared, or hungry, or not tired, or lonely, or wants to sleep on the couch, or whatever. Between 11 and 12 is usually when she finally goes to sleep. And then she is the first kid up. What the heck? It just makes me feel like the worst parent. How is it that we have not been able to figure this out after all of the other kids? What is wrong with us? What is wrong with her? We have tried everything! Sharing a room, having her own room, sharing with a new sibling, being nice, yelling, putting a lock on her door (which only makes her scream bloody murder until we unlock it)... We are at our wit's end with her. Every night she gets yelled at, unless by some miracle she falls asleep on the couch. But then we almost assuredly have Wes awake due to an untimely nap he takes. Hallie has also been the worst at this age (the 3-5 age). Marissa was really whiney and Connor had a lot of anger at that age. They were both really challenging. But Hallie is both whiney and angry! She is very, very demanding, just constantly wanting things, asking, talking, crying, screaming, being mad... not happy very often. She probably acts even worse because she doesn't get the sleep she needs (see above!) It has been awful! Again, I have tried so many tactics, but ultimately, she is disobedient and unhappy and I feel like a constant failure.
That is why things have been so difficult for me kid wise for the past two plus years. The bad part is that I don't even see it changing for another two years. I dread the next two years, and I hate that feeling. Next year she has three days of preschool, 2 hours at a time. That will be a good break from her, but I will still be dealing with Wes. The next year she will have 3 hours of kindergarten... again, a nice break from her but I will still have Wes. He'll be better by then, right? I seriously pray that he will not give me as much of a hard time at age 3-5 that Hallie has. I don't know if I will survive that.
Anyway, it's just been an exceptionally busy month. June always is. I try to make each person's birthday special, but it is a lot to ask of me in a two week time span (4 birthdays and Father's day). I feel responsible for the success of all of them. Let's do something fun, let's give them breakfast in bed, let's let them choose what dinner they want, let's make them a special cake... overwhelming. On top of that, it has been baseball season for two kids. Last week we had 5 games! It is very time consuming, but they love it. I have fun watching, but I get so exhausted doing all of this. Also, it is the Parade of Homes right now and there is nothing I love more. The bad part is that I only have 4 days to go to it due to busyness and vacations. I have also been doing a 12 week course called uncluttered. I really feel like I need it in my life. I feel so stressed with all the demands on me! All the time! I also feel smothered by stuff. I have been going through stuff room by room and getting rid of a ton of it. But then there are times that you just hit a roadblock. You just can't do any more. It is emotionally exhausting. It is also demoralizing to feel like you have a space pretty good, and then you go back a week or two later to find it trashed. Somehow, because I didn't take out everything, they found a way to make a huge mess. I don't know if I'll ever have a clean uncluttered home/life. I mean, living with kids that is.
On top of all of this, I keep getting asked to help people with different things. I want to serve others, but a lot of times those are the things that are really the straws that break me. One week I was doing things for people every day. Can you help me build something? Can you help me design some graphics for the book I'm writing? Will you make dinner for someone (which by the way, I hate)? Can you help me do a photo book? Can you help me design a bunk bed? Can you help me cut something out on your cutting machine? Can you help me design a poster? How about design a basement? How about teach me how to build something out of wood? These are all things I love to do, but honestly, it is really stressing me out to the breaking point. In addition, I just got a new calling as the YW advisor as well as YW camp director. I love the girls and being in there with them, but again, it is a lot. I did an activity which took hours of prep work this week, I'm having to deal with camp stuff, I have to teach on Sunday, and I am supposed to find a suitable camp location for next year. Yes, I can and will do these thing. But man, I am on the brink...
Hallie has also been kind of a nightmare for the past two years. While she was a fine sleeper and napper as a baby, she has been the worst sleeper by far at this age. She is up the latest out of all the kids (her and Wes), but refuses to sleep in her bed or even her room. She has been sleeping on our floor for the past year or so. Jared and I are so tired that we just don't even care where she sleeps as long as she sleeps somewhere. But it is always a constant, nightly battle. The older kids go to bed when they are asked. Maybe it takes a few times of asking, but they go and they stay in bed. Hallie needs to be tucked in about 4 times and still gets up saying she is scared, or hungry, or not tired, or lonely, or wants to sleep on the couch, or whatever. Between 11 and 12 is usually when she finally goes to sleep. And then she is the first kid up. What the heck? It just makes me feel like the worst parent. How is it that we have not been able to figure this out after all of the other kids? What is wrong with us? What is wrong with her? We have tried everything! Sharing a room, having her own room, sharing with a new sibling, being nice, yelling, putting a lock on her door (which only makes her scream bloody murder until we unlock it)... We are at our wit's end with her. Every night she gets yelled at, unless by some miracle she falls asleep on the couch. But then we almost assuredly have Wes awake due to an untimely nap he takes. Hallie has also been the worst at this age (the 3-5 age). Marissa was really whiney and Connor had a lot of anger at that age. They were both really challenging. But Hallie is both whiney and angry! She is very, very demanding, just constantly wanting things, asking, talking, crying, screaming, being mad... not happy very often. She probably acts even worse because she doesn't get the sleep she needs (see above!) It has been awful! Again, I have tried so many tactics, but ultimately, she is disobedient and unhappy and I feel like a constant failure.
That is why things have been so difficult for me kid wise for the past two plus years. The bad part is that I don't even see it changing for another two years. I dread the next two years, and I hate that feeling. Next year she has three days of preschool, 2 hours at a time. That will be a good break from her, but I will still be dealing with Wes. The next year she will have 3 hours of kindergarten... again, a nice break from her but I will still have Wes. He'll be better by then, right? I seriously pray that he will not give me as much of a hard time at age 3-5 that Hallie has. I don't know if I will survive that.
Anyway, it's just been an exceptionally busy month. June always is. I try to make each person's birthday special, but it is a lot to ask of me in a two week time span (4 birthdays and Father's day). I feel responsible for the success of all of them. Let's do something fun, let's give them breakfast in bed, let's let them choose what dinner they want, let's make them a special cake... overwhelming. On top of that, it has been baseball season for two kids. Last week we had 5 games! It is very time consuming, but they love it. I have fun watching, but I get so exhausted doing all of this. Also, it is the Parade of Homes right now and there is nothing I love more. The bad part is that I only have 4 days to go to it due to busyness and vacations. I have also been doing a 12 week course called uncluttered. I really feel like I need it in my life. I feel so stressed with all the demands on me! All the time! I also feel smothered by stuff. I have been going through stuff room by room and getting rid of a ton of it. But then there are times that you just hit a roadblock. You just can't do any more. It is emotionally exhausting. It is also demoralizing to feel like you have a space pretty good, and then you go back a week or two later to find it trashed. Somehow, because I didn't take out everything, they found a way to make a huge mess. I don't know if I'll ever have a clean uncluttered home/life. I mean, living with kids that is.
On top of all of this, I keep getting asked to help people with different things. I want to serve others, but a lot of times those are the things that are really the straws that break me. One week I was doing things for people every day. Can you help me build something? Can you help me design some graphics for the book I'm writing? Will you make dinner for someone (which by the way, I hate)? Can you help me do a photo book? Can you help me design a bunk bed? Can you help me cut something out on your cutting machine? Can you help me design a poster? How about design a basement? How about teach me how to build something out of wood? These are all things I love to do, but honestly, it is really stressing me out to the breaking point. In addition, I just got a new calling as the YW advisor as well as YW camp director. I love the girls and being in there with them, but again, it is a lot. I did an activity which took hours of prep work this week, I'm having to deal with camp stuff, I have to teach on Sunday, and I am supposed to find a suitable camp location for next year. Yes, I can and will do these thing. But man, I am on the brink...
Monday, January 25, 2016
More about our life
Again, my desire to record things has been overshadowed by my need to survive. So, here are some things I guess I don't want to forget and some pictures from Christmas.
Wesley is almost 10 months old. He weighs 17.4 pounds (10th%) and is 29 inches (62nd%). He is definitely into everything, as can be evidenced by the daily trail of destruction he leaves. Pulling all the towels and rags out of the drawer and getting into the kid dishes drawer are some of his favorite things to do. He does like to help take all the clothes out of the washer and hand them to me to put in the dryer. It's adorable. The barstool-at-the-bottom-of-the-stairs-baby-gate worked for several months until he learned how to crawl over it. We've moved on to the constantly-climbing-up-the-stairs-while-terrifying-his-parents-because-he-hasn't-learned-how-to-go-down-feet-first phase. It's a fun one. He's getting a lot better at it, but it's still scary. He loves to stand, but hasn't taken any steps yet. He mostly looks like he surfing because of his stance and the way he balances. (Update-since it's taken me so long to post this: Wes took his first step one day before he turned 10 months. A week later he was taking several steps. 14 is his record. I've never had a baby start to walk this early!!)
Wes is starting to like eating table food but still eats a lot of baby food. His all time favorite food is yogurt and probably eats one every day. He still hates drinking a bottle but does it sometimes. The only way I can get him to drink it is when I'm holding him while standing. So it's like I'm feeding a goat with his head looking to the ceiling. When I try to sit down he goes crazy and stops drinking. The boy still hasn't slept through the night more than 4 times in his life. Last week we moved his crib into our walk in closet (since there's no other room available for him right now) and he seems to be sleeping a lot better in there. It's warm and dark and away from a lot of the chaos that could wake him up. He's been taking good naps, but he has been waking up twice a night since then. Still, a vast improvement from some of the other nights he's had where he would wake up 5 or 6 times and couldn't be consoled. I tell you, this baby has two purposes in life right now: 1-to slowly kill me and Jared via sleep deprivation and 2-to make dang sure, even though we weren't planning on it, that we will not have any more kids. You would think I'd be able to figure out how to deal with a baby by now, but I've never had a baby that didn't sleep before. Ahh, Wes. Some day he will sleep.
We all call him Wessie, or just Wes. I also call him Buddy Bud. He sure melts my heart by how cute he is. The other day we asked who wanted dinner and everyone raised their hands, including him. He also folds his arms for the prayer and loves to clap, something he learned the day before Thanksgiving. He shakes his head no a lot and sometimes does yes. He's got a great laugh. He was sitting in his high chair watching everyone carve pumpkins for Halloween and he just started cracking up by how funny one of the pumpkins was. Love to see the wheels in his head turning.
Hallie keeps saying really cute things. Everything that has stripes on it she calls wobbly. She loves her wobbly dress and her wobbly shirts. She found some old cups with Dora on them, claimed them as her own and started calling them her "Nora tups". I guess we haven't watched enough Dora with her, or any come to think of it. Breakfast was "fetuss" and now it's "befduss", a movie is a "fawvie", rubber bands are "wubbin bands", ketchup is "teputch" and zip it is "yip it". Other common phrases are "Mom, where is you?" or "Where is her?" Instead of "I know how" she just says, "I how". Whenever we are in the car she asks, "Aw we dohing home? Aw we?" Oh, and I have to "yisten" to her or she will get really mad. If I'm not "yooking" at her while I'm listening then she'll break down and say, "Mom, you're not yistening at me!" When she wants something and I tell her no, she says, "No, I want it." Oh, see had I realized that you wanted it I would have said yes... Her favorite shows are Daniel Tiger (which she used to call Tigga Daniels) and Super Why (pronounced Supper Why). She talks about her friends all the time, especially Isabella. Usually it's, "Mine fends do dis," and then she'll say something crazy that her friends do but you know she's just making it all up. Hallie started Primary last Sunday! She could not be more excited to be in Primary. She just gets really excited and giggles about it whenever you mention it.
I made her some doll house furniture for Christmas and she loves it!
Connor is a funny kid. He was the only kid who told Santa what he wanted when he sat on his lap and what was it? A tiny Santa. I asked him what he meant afterwards and he said, "Ugh, Santa knows." So, he got a tiny Santa in his stocking and yes, it is his favorite present. So crazy how the littlest things make them the most happy. I got a text from the mom of a girl in his kindergarten class asking if Connor ever talks about how she kisses him every day. He was pretty embarrassed when I asked him and denied it happening, but did say that she (Eliza) chases him and tries to kiss him every day and that she has a crush on him. When I told him she wanted him to come over he said, "I'll go, as long as she doesn't kiss me." Then, come to find out, Connor is the captain of the boys, since Landon moved that is. After all the digging I've done I've only gathered that the captain is only the captain when the girls start chasing them, that he is the one who makes the plans, and that the dumbest plan they made was "Run!" Also, the reason he is the captain is because he is the skinniest. He says this stuff so matter-of-factly too. All I can do is laugh.
Besides that, he is really taking off with reading. He got the Elephant and Piggie books for Christmas and thinks they are great. He had the longest part of all my kids in the Primary program and he did a great job memorizing it and saying it so clearly. It had some hard words too like begotten, whosoever, perisheth and everlasting. Last week we remembered that he had the scripture at the end of Sacrament meeting. Jared looked one up and read it with him once. He read it great in Primary and then said it completely memorized after church (after only two times reading it!) Another funny thing he said yesterday was, "Mom, you're old" and after I started laughing he said, "Well, not that much old."
Marissa has been loving gymnastics, even though her best friend quit taking classes with her. You know this because she is always doing hand stands and cartwheels all over the place, like in the hall, the kitchen, 2 inches from Wesley's head, etc. She is getting pretty good at them. I took her to be evaluated at another gym and she made it into level 2 (she is already on level 2 the current gym). Hopefully there will be a spot open for her when I try to sign up, mostly because it is half the price and will give her a longer class. Marissa was a very grateful girl this Christmas. She loved getting the Crayola cling creator which produced a good 15 slimy window decorations to be displayed right by our front door. She really did love that gift. The other thing she got was a camera, which she also really wanted and loves. Her best friend at school is Brooklyn, who really, really likes Marissa. Her mom told me that she was so grateful that Brooklyn had found such a great friend because she has a hard time making friends. Needless to say, both parents hear a lot about the other friend. It's nice to be able to find someone like that.
Alex has been loving basketball right now. He is on a team with his neighbor friends and has made a basket every game. He has also been learning some really fun songs on the piano. Over Christmas he learned and memorized a few on his own and a bunch of Christmas duets with Erin that they performed on Christmas Eve. I love hearing them play together! Now they are working on Linus and Lucy from Charlie Brown and it is so fun to hear. Alex will sit down several times a day and just play songs and is starting to learn some chord progressions. He is persistent and talented with it. Alex and Erin also performed a couple of times with the school choir.
Two of his favorite Christmas gifts were a pocket knife (which came in handy opening stuff on Christmas) and a Rubik's cube. All six of the neighbor boys his age got one in their stocking (random, right?) so they all carry them around trying to solve them. He is getting good at it and only has to look it up on certain parts. This year the class field trip was skiing and snowboarding! He chose snowboarding because it looked cooler, even though I tried to convince him that we are a skiing family. They gave him lessons and spent the day up there. He loved it! Now if only we could find the time and money to take him and our other kids up some other time.
Erin has been enjoying her music dance theater class and did a really fun performance at the Festival of Trees, that I have no photographic evidence of due to our other kids being crazy cranky (in their defense, the performance didn't start till after 9 pm) Erin was challenged by her Primary teachers to ready the Book of Mormon this year. The first week she was supposed to ready 50 pages, about 7 pages a night. Instead, she started reading 7 or 8 chapters a night. It's only been a few weeks and she is already in the middle of Alma! She comes down and asks questions about it and is really enjoying it. She said that she wants to read all of the standard works this year. I'm amazed by how ambitious she can be when she sets her mind to something. She has also read all 20 battle of the books titles and is starting to reread those.
Erin was really ambitious with her Christmas presents this year. She made a doll quilt for Hallie, a doll rug for Marissa and made a car mat for the boys. It's really cool because all the roads are moveable. She spent a lot of time cutting and gluing in her room. Just before Christmas I taught her how to use the sewing machine to finish the projects, and that night she stayed up late sewing a little purse that she designed. Awesome. We found out that 4 of her Refelctions projects went to the district and 2 of them went on to the region. I received an email saying that one of her projects went on to the state level! We'll find out tomorrow which one. It's cool to see her succeed at things, especially since she worked so hard on Reflections the last two years and didn't get anything. Erin also just got her second phase of braces on. Hopefully this phase won't take too long and she will have perfect teeth by the middle of 7th grade.
Jared has been gaining a lot of momentum on our basement. We realized some time in November that he had a lot of vacation days that he hadn't taken, so he took two weeks off in December. We decided it was time to finish the basement (since we started the framing over two years ago). In that time we have paid for my Lasik surgery, purchased two new cars, gone to Disneyland, had a baby, had some medical bills and basically haven't had much time to work on it. We hired out the HVAC and Jared has done 75% of the electrical so far. He also finished up the framing, so we are making some real headway. I can't wait to have it done! I'm glad Jared is so handy and talented at figuring stuff out. Even so, there are so many little details to think about as far as lighting and framing that it takes us a long time.
This is obviously my favorite gift I gave to Jared. I LOVE it when MY WIFE lets me play racquetball. This was also week 2 of his 3 week Christmas beard.
I, Laura, have been staying alive and keeping my kids alive. That's about it. I feel like this year has been a big blur. I am not depressed, which is good, but I am basically doing what I need to take survive. Someone once said to me that she heard that anything after three kids is easy (this was coming from someone with three kids). Totally not true! While I do remember three kids as being quite challenging, I have to say that having the sixth has been completely exhausting. Sleep deprivation has been pretty brutal. I think it has been most challenging physically, as I haven't had much time to exercise. But I know this phase will not last forever. I am almost done nursing Wes, though he still goes crazy in the middle of the night without it. Being done always makes me feel more like myself again. He is also really hard to leave places because he just cries, so I mostly have him with me all the time. I am leaving on a 3 day girls trip this weekend and I'm hoping Wes will be okay without me. I am looking forward to a fun break.
I got a laminator and Jared and I got really nice new phones for Christmas! I'm excited to be able to take better pictures from my phone.
The annual "stand in order in your new pajamas on Christmas Eve" picture
Christmas Breakfast on fancy china
Wesley is almost 10 months old. He weighs 17.4 pounds (10th%) and is 29 inches (62nd%). He is definitely into everything, as can be evidenced by the daily trail of destruction he leaves. Pulling all the towels and rags out of the drawer and getting into the kid dishes drawer are some of his favorite things to do. He does like to help take all the clothes out of the washer and hand them to me to put in the dryer. It's adorable. The barstool-at-the-bottom-of-the-stairs-baby-gate worked for several months until he learned how to crawl over it. We've moved on to the constantly-climbing-up-the-stairs-while-terrifying-his-parents-because-he-hasn't-learned-how-to-go-down-feet-first phase. It's a fun one. He's getting a lot better at it, but it's still scary. He loves to stand, but hasn't taken any steps yet. He mostly looks like he surfing because of his stance and the way he balances. (Update-since it's taken me so long to post this: Wes took his first step one day before he turned 10 months. A week later he was taking several steps. 14 is his record. I've never had a baby start to walk this early!!)
Wes is starting to like eating table food but still eats a lot of baby food. His all time favorite food is yogurt and probably eats one every day. He still hates drinking a bottle but does it sometimes. The only way I can get him to drink it is when I'm holding him while standing. So it's like I'm feeding a goat with his head looking to the ceiling. When I try to sit down he goes crazy and stops drinking. The boy still hasn't slept through the night more than 4 times in his life. Last week we moved his crib into our walk in closet (since there's no other room available for him right now) and he seems to be sleeping a lot better in there. It's warm and dark and away from a lot of the chaos that could wake him up. He's been taking good naps, but he has been waking up twice a night since then. Still, a vast improvement from some of the other nights he's had where he would wake up 5 or 6 times and couldn't be consoled. I tell you, this baby has two purposes in life right now: 1-to slowly kill me and Jared via sleep deprivation and 2-to make dang sure, even though we weren't planning on it, that we will not have any more kids. You would think I'd be able to figure out how to deal with a baby by now, but I've never had a baby that didn't sleep before. Ahh, Wes. Some day he will sleep.
We all call him Wessie, or just Wes. I also call him Buddy Bud. He sure melts my heart by how cute he is. The other day we asked who wanted dinner and everyone raised their hands, including him. He also folds his arms for the prayer and loves to clap, something he learned the day before Thanksgiving. He shakes his head no a lot and sometimes does yes. He's got a great laugh. He was sitting in his high chair watching everyone carve pumpkins for Halloween and he just started cracking up by how funny one of the pumpkins was. Love to see the wheels in his head turning.
This was the best I could do for Wesley's Christmas picture. He was super squirmy!
Hallie keeps saying really cute things. Everything that has stripes on it she calls wobbly. She loves her wobbly dress and her wobbly shirts. She found some old cups with Dora on them, claimed them as her own and started calling them her "Nora tups". I guess we haven't watched enough Dora with her, or any come to think of it. Breakfast was "fetuss" and now it's "befduss", a movie is a "fawvie", rubber bands are "wubbin bands", ketchup is "teputch" and zip it is "yip it". Other common phrases are "Mom, where is you?" or "Where is her?" Instead of "I know how" she just says, "I how". Whenever we are in the car she asks, "Aw we dohing home? Aw we?" Oh, and I have to "yisten" to her or she will get really mad. If I'm not "yooking" at her while I'm listening then she'll break down and say, "Mom, you're not yistening at me!" When she wants something and I tell her no, she says, "No, I want it." Oh, see had I realized that you wanted it I would have said yes... Her favorite shows are Daniel Tiger (which she used to call Tigga Daniels) and Super Why (pronounced Supper Why). She talks about her friends all the time, especially Isabella. Usually it's, "Mine fends do dis," and then she'll say something crazy that her friends do but you know she's just making it all up. Hallie started Primary last Sunday! She could not be more excited to be in Primary. She just gets really excited and giggles about it whenever you mention it.
I made her some doll house furniture for Christmas and she loves it!
This was a DIY fort kit that we made for our kids. They made lots of fun forts in the living room (this is why we need our basement to be finished)
Connor is a funny kid. He was the only kid who told Santa what he wanted when he sat on his lap and what was it? A tiny Santa. I asked him what he meant afterwards and he said, "Ugh, Santa knows." So, he got a tiny Santa in his stocking and yes, it is his favorite present. So crazy how the littlest things make them the most happy. I got a text from the mom of a girl in his kindergarten class asking if Connor ever talks about how she kisses him every day. He was pretty embarrassed when I asked him and denied it happening, but did say that she (Eliza) chases him and tries to kiss him every day and that she has a crush on him. When I told him she wanted him to come over he said, "I'll go, as long as she doesn't kiss me." Then, come to find out, Connor is the captain of the boys, since Landon moved that is. After all the digging I've done I've only gathered that the captain is only the captain when the girls start chasing them, that he is the one who makes the plans, and that the dumbest plan they made was "Run!" Also, the reason he is the captain is because he is the skinniest. He says this stuff so matter-of-factly too. All I can do is laugh.
Besides that, he is really taking off with reading. He got the Elephant and Piggie books for Christmas and thinks they are great. He had the longest part of all my kids in the Primary program and he did a great job memorizing it and saying it so clearly. It had some hard words too like begotten, whosoever, perisheth and everlasting. Last week we remembered that he had the scripture at the end of Sacrament meeting. Jared looked one up and read it with him once. He read it great in Primary and then said it completely memorized after church (after only two times reading it!) Another funny thing he said yesterday was, "Mom, you're old" and after I started laughing he said, "Well, not that much old."
Marissa has been loving gymnastics, even though her best friend quit taking classes with her. You know this because she is always doing hand stands and cartwheels all over the place, like in the hall, the kitchen, 2 inches from Wesley's head, etc. She is getting pretty good at them. I took her to be evaluated at another gym and she made it into level 2 (she is already on level 2 the current gym). Hopefully there will be a spot open for her when I try to sign up, mostly because it is half the price and will give her a longer class. Marissa was a very grateful girl this Christmas. She loved getting the Crayola cling creator which produced a good 15 slimy window decorations to be displayed right by our front door. She really did love that gift. The other thing she got was a camera, which she also really wanted and loves. Her best friend at school is Brooklyn, who really, really likes Marissa. Her mom told me that she was so grateful that Brooklyn had found such a great friend because she has a hard time making friends. Needless to say, both parents hear a lot about the other friend. It's nice to be able to find someone like that.
Alex has been loving basketball right now. He is on a team with his neighbor friends and has made a basket every game. He has also been learning some really fun songs on the piano. Over Christmas he learned and memorized a few on his own and a bunch of Christmas duets with Erin that they performed on Christmas Eve. I love hearing them play together! Now they are working on Linus and Lucy from Charlie Brown and it is so fun to hear. Alex will sit down several times a day and just play songs and is starting to learn some chord progressions. He is persistent and talented with it. Alex and Erin also performed a couple of times with the school choir.
Two of his favorite Christmas gifts were a pocket knife (which came in handy opening stuff on Christmas) and a Rubik's cube. All six of the neighbor boys his age got one in their stocking (random, right?) so they all carry them around trying to solve them. He is getting good at it and only has to look it up on certain parts. This year the class field trip was skiing and snowboarding! He chose snowboarding because it looked cooler, even though I tried to convince him that we are a skiing family. They gave him lessons and spent the day up there. He loved it! Now if only we could find the time and money to take him and our other kids up some other time.
Erin has been enjoying her music dance theater class and did a really fun performance at the Festival of Trees, that I have no photographic evidence of due to our other kids being crazy cranky (in their defense, the performance didn't start till after 9 pm) Erin was challenged by her Primary teachers to ready the Book of Mormon this year. The first week she was supposed to ready 50 pages, about 7 pages a night. Instead, she started reading 7 or 8 chapters a night. It's only been a few weeks and she is already in the middle of Alma! She comes down and asks questions about it and is really enjoying it. She said that she wants to read all of the standard works this year. I'm amazed by how ambitious she can be when she sets her mind to something. She has also read all 20 battle of the books titles and is starting to reread those.
Erin was really ambitious with her Christmas presents this year. She made a doll quilt for Hallie, a doll rug for Marissa and made a car mat for the boys. It's really cool because all the roads are moveable. She spent a lot of time cutting and gluing in her room. Just before Christmas I taught her how to use the sewing machine to finish the projects, and that night she stayed up late sewing a little purse that she designed. Awesome. We found out that 4 of her Refelctions projects went to the district and 2 of them went on to the region. I received an email saying that one of her projects went on to the state level! We'll find out tomorrow which one. It's cool to see her succeed at things, especially since she worked so hard on Reflections the last two years and didn't get anything. Erin also just got her second phase of braces on. Hopefully this phase won't take too long and she will have perfect teeth by the middle of 7th grade.
Jared has been gaining a lot of momentum on our basement. We realized some time in November that he had a lot of vacation days that he hadn't taken, so he took two weeks off in December. We decided it was time to finish the basement (since we started the framing over two years ago). In that time we have paid for my Lasik surgery, purchased two new cars, gone to Disneyland, had a baby, had some medical bills and basically haven't had much time to work on it. We hired out the HVAC and Jared has done 75% of the electrical so far. He also finished up the framing, so we are making some real headway. I can't wait to have it done! I'm glad Jared is so handy and talented at figuring stuff out. Even so, there are so many little details to think about as far as lighting and framing that it takes us a long time.
This is obviously my favorite gift I gave to Jared. I LOVE it when MY WIFE lets me play racquetball. This was also week 2 of his 3 week Christmas beard.
I, Laura, have been staying alive and keeping my kids alive. That's about it. I feel like this year has been a big blur. I am not depressed, which is good, but I am basically doing what I need to take survive. Someone once said to me that she heard that anything after three kids is easy (this was coming from someone with three kids). Totally not true! While I do remember three kids as being quite challenging, I have to say that having the sixth has been completely exhausting. Sleep deprivation has been pretty brutal. I think it has been most challenging physically, as I haven't had much time to exercise. But I know this phase will not last forever. I am almost done nursing Wes, though he still goes crazy in the middle of the night without it. Being done always makes me feel more like myself again. He is also really hard to leave places because he just cries, so I mostly have him with me all the time. I am leaving on a 3 day girls trip this weekend and I'm hoping Wes will be okay without me. I am looking forward to a fun break.
I got a laminator and Jared and I got really nice new phones for Christmas! I'm excited to be able to take better pictures from my phone.
And this was our Christmas card this year. So basically, I managed to do something last year.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Two Birthdays
Hallie turned "fee" on Sept. 30th. Ever since then she says, "I'm bigga" (bigger) over and over again... probably a good 30 times a day... to which I have to say (over and over again), "Yes, Hallie, you are bigger." She still says she is "happy birthday", something that started a year ago when she turned 2. In the last couple of months, Hallie has really gotten the hang of potty training, something which I am extremely grateful for. So no more pooping in her underwear, no more sloshing poop in the toilet--Hallie-luiah! My life has gotten better by a good 65% I would say. And amazingly, she has never wet the bed. That girl has some great bladder control.
I baked a chocolate cake in the morning and then went upstairs to take a shower while it was cooling. When I came downstairs, the cake had been completely cut up as you can see in the picture. I guess Hallie wanted to cut her own cake? Who knows why kids do the things they do? The point is that I had to turn the cake upside down and frost it the best I could, despite it being cut into pieces. It was a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake with all the characters, fitting since she has watched the one episode we have about 100 times since last year.
Apparently, I was not very good at taking pictures that day. We hung out at the children's museum for a while and then my parents came over to give her some presents. She said she wanted clothes when they asked her so they gave her some cute things, including new underwear. She also got new underwear from me and now thinks that any time she changes her clothes (which is multiple times a day) she also needs a new pair of underwear. Since she loves Minnie Mouse, she got a Minnie dress up and a Minnie stuffed animal.
On Oct. 10th Alex turned 9. Since Alex is usually the first one up in the family, we made him turn off his alarm so we could bring him breakfast in bed.
Alex has a fun personality. He wanted a cheese cake this year... like a wedge of cheese made out of cake, not an actual cheese cake. I'm not sure if anyone remembers the racquetball racquet/fly swatter cake that I made for Jared a few years back. The one in which I declared that it wasn't my worst cake ever, to which Jared asked which one was worse than that one? That cake is infamously known as my worst cake ever... that is until this one.
This is what it was supposed to look like...
...and this is what it actually looked like.
All I could do was laugh about it. Since it was chocolate, all the dark crumbs came through like it was a piece of cheese dropped in the dirt. And all the holes we tried to put in it just made it look that much worse. It has been affectionately named "The Cheese Touch" cake and "The Pinterest Fail". Oh, and then there is the writing. It kind of looks like it says "Alex is 91. Alex was such a great sport about it and just thought it was funny. I love that he does things just to be funny or ironic, like wanting to be Santa Claus for Halloween.
Anyway, we rounded up whatever part of the gang of boys that was lurking around our house at the time and gave them each a piece of the Cheese Touch (it was delicious, in my defense)
He got a new basketball, a circuit making kit (something that Jared loves) and the second Harry Potter book. Alex just finished the first one and loved it.
Since it was a Saturday and since we weren't having a friend party for him this year, we went downtown for a family day. We spent hours at the Leonardo museum. We had never been there and it was so fun. They had tons of things to play with and build, as well as paint and create. The best part was that there was hardly anyone there. I feel like if we had that museum in our neighborhood, it would be packed all the time. Anyway, it was a really fun family day!
I baked a chocolate cake in the morning and then went upstairs to take a shower while it was cooling. When I came downstairs, the cake had been completely cut up as you can see in the picture. I guess Hallie wanted to cut her own cake? Who knows why kids do the things they do? The point is that I had to turn the cake upside down and frost it the best I could, despite it being cut into pieces. It was a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake with all the characters, fitting since she has watched the one episode we have about 100 times since last year.
Hallie also loves to say the prayer. Whenever someone else gets asked to say it, she immediately says that she will say the prayer for dinner or for bed (whichever is the next one). She also doesn't like to go to bed (just like her mom), so we always have Hallie and the baby up for a couple of hours after the other kids have gone to bed. Sweet Hallie is sure growing up! And we love her so much!
Erin made this awesome card and homemade basketball for him. So creative!
This is what it was supposed to look like...
All I could do was laugh about it. Since it was chocolate, all the dark crumbs came through like it was a piece of cheese dropped in the dirt. And all the holes we tried to put in it just made it look that much worse. It has been affectionately named "The Cheese Touch" cake and "The Pinterest Fail". Oh, and then there is the writing. It kind of looks like it says "Alex is 91. Alex was such a great sport about it and just thought it was funny. I love that he does things just to be funny or ironic, like wanting to be Santa Claus for Halloween.
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