Annual Rockets Run!

Since Ragnar has been working for the Rockets for nearly 10 years, we have looked forward and tried to participate in the Rockets run each year. The kids love it and we have a fun time running together. The weather was pretty cold this year in the low 40s and we were pretty chilly running!

The kids and Ragnar started with the Kids 1k. They did a great job. They all ran the whole way which was great.  

Cavin finished first right after 8 minutes and he was 7th overall. Deacon finished next and was running pretty hard in. Next was Channing who stopped right before the finish line..had to teach her about running through all the way :) Then Ragnar came in trying to encourage Ella through the finish line. Ella does not enjoy running, much to my dismay, but she does it every year and I am grateful for that. 

Next was my 5k race. It was so cold that I literally couldn't feel my feet for the first mile. I did well enough and was happy with my effort. I do get frustrated that I am always about 30 seconds off my goal time, but I am trying to learn to just be happy with my best. 

I finished first in my age group. It certainly helps to get older when it comes to racing :) I was 6th overall girl out of 346 as well and 59 out of 828 participants. I enjoy doing a short, fast race once a year.  

We had a nice morning but were a little bummed that none of my family could join us this year. Hopefully next year they can again.  

After the race, we had to hurry home for me to turn around and drive back downtown to the Food Bank with the Young Women and volunteer for our church stake activity. It was great to serve and help and be with the youth.

A switch around!

This week we made some changes to the room arrangements in our home. The boys have been dying to share a room together and we finally felt like it was time. All Cavin wanted for Christmas was a new room. Since the sale was ending on this bunkbed, we went ahead and decided to move forward early. The boys are really close, but I have been hesitating putting them together because Deacon still takes a long nap everyday. He is only 9 months from Kindergarten, so I guess the beginning of the phasing off naps needs to slowly begin. Sad day for me ;) I hate to see how big they are getting.

Cavin wanted this bunkbed and was really excited to have a "boy" room. 

Our friend did the lego sorted shelves to help them play with their legos more, and it is a fun idea and he's excited about it...I just wish she would have warned me that it would take 3 hours to sort them!!! 

As you can tell I haven't really decorated yet, but you can see what the direction their room is going in..We love the Rockets around here! 

The cute boys were so excited and have done ok so far. Deacon just said.."now mom we can stay up and talk about disgusting things ;)" lovely!

With the boys moving together, it allowed Channing to have her own room. She has been saying she doesn't really want to be alone. I was worried how it would go. She has been loving it though. She was so excited about her own space that she kept jumping up and down!  

She has over 20 pair of shoes, so Cavin was excited to have some of his closet back! We love our girly girl and hopefully for her birthday we can decorate her room. This is just old stuff from Ella and my sister Natalie. 
Here is to new family adventures!

A quick hello!

Last weekend Ragnar's parents and sister came into town. The kids were so excited to see them. They had been waiting at the door for 2 hours. Unfortunately by the time they got there I had distracted them with a movie so they would stop waiting and then when they came they wanted to finish..I guess you can't win everytime ;)

Saturday we were supposed to go watch Cavin's soccer game, but it was rained out for the 3rd time. The weather has been so rainy. We went to the store and picked out pumpkins to paint instead.

The kids looked online to figure out what they wanted to paint and then got to work! They spent several hours on them.  

Channing painted Piggie from a book she liked called Piggie and Gerald that she had to do for a school project as well. Daphne helped Deacon create Pikachu which he was excited about. Ella painted a unicorn, and Cavin got pretty creative with his spider accessorized all the way up with a top hat! I loved to see the kids creativity.

We played some games and Ragnar, his dad, and sister played Skat. We celebrated Daphne's birthday and then had a BBQ.

Ursula sewed Ella's hole in her cow costume and then tried it on for good measure. ;) 

The next morning they joined us for church and lunch and they were off. It was such a short visit, but I am glad we got to at least say hi.

Ragnar turns 41!

Ragnar celebrated his 41st birthday on September 25, 2018. He was lucky to be able to share his birthday weekend with his father and sister Daphne. 

We were scheduled to have a soccer filled Saturday, but we have had relentless rain every weekend, so the games were cancelled and our day was open! He chose to go bowling and we headed to the ally! Ragnar BARELY beat Ella for the win on the first game and he also won the second. Birthday luck I suppose ;) 

We watched a movie and then headed to Saltgrass for dinner. Good food and good company. 

He loves bundt cakes, so we bought a chocolate bundt cake to share! 

Sunday we went to church and the big "kids" seemed more entertained by the toys ;) haha I guess at any age you gotta keep people entertained!

We had a nice short weekend with his dad and sister. On his actual birthday he had to work and then go to coach soccer practice. We got in another small bundt cake and celebrated with him a little in the evening. He was thrilled to get an apple watch. 
We sure love this guy and are glad he had another birthday to celebrate him. He is a hard working, dad joke telling, sports lovin, kind man and we are lucky to have him in our lives. I know his 41st year is going to bring amazing things!

A visit from the Fingerle's.

The last week of August, Ragnar's oldest sister Pamela came with her family from Germany to visit us. They have never been here, so it was neat to be able to host them for a week. They have been on a United States tour for a month and we were their last stop.

We took them to NASA one day and we enjoyed seeing amazing history of the space program.

Deacon loved seeing all the rockets and such.

We made it down to Galveston beach. It was a very hot day but sunny nonetheless. Mia and Channing played well together even though they couldn't understand each other due to the different languages they speak. 

Cute girls had matching hair and matching swimsuits! 

 

I really don't enjoy the beach as the stress of the mess of sand and all the prep and cleaning up makes it not relaxing for me. However, I do enjoy going a couple times a year as the kids really enjoy playing in the sand and the waves. We had a nice time visiting as well!

Next we showed them the World Champion Houston Astros baseball team. They aren't very familiar with this American Sport, so it was fun to take them on a once in a lifetime experience. It was a very long game, but we enjoyed chatting as they played.  

Aaron is great with Deacon. He always plays with him and wants him to sit by and hang out with him.  

Ragnar and his sister the night before they left. We played games several nights and it is always nice to play with their family. They are always kind enough to bring us a fun game and we enjoy what new ones they will come up with! 

 

We are very grateful that they took the time to come here and to spend time with us and see Houston. Regardless of if August is the worst time to visit Houston, we had a nice time and enjoyed catching up!

The 2018-2019 school year has begun!

The summer is officially over and we are back to school! Thankfully the kids love school, so they are usually happy to go back. I miss them when they are gone, but love to watch them progress throughout the year.

Their first day of school was August 20, 2018

Ella is now in 7th grade and started a new program at TMS called the STEM program. There are 80 students in her grade doing the program and she was excited to be chosen. They will still take them through the AP class material, but will do most of the learning through hands on learning and projects to understand the concepts. I hope it goes well and she is really looking forward to it! She also is still doing her concert orchestra and is playing the cello.

Cavin began 5th grade and his teacher is Mrs. Pickard. He was so excited about school starting that on Friday he asked if we could skip Saturday and Sunday so we could just start school! He has always been an incredible student. He is playing soccer again and excited about starting that soon. He also does safety patrol at school where he basically opens the car doors before and after school to let the kids in and help the car line go quicker. He is excited about it because he is the big 5th grader on campus and he can do that now. Also he was told he is going to be the captain of the math Olympiad team, so he was really looking forward to that!

I caught a quick shot of him opening the doors the first day of school. :)

Channing started 2nd grade with Mrs. Petzold. She has a teacher who asked to move up with her class, so she has the same kids and same teacher as last year. I was excited about that since she is a great teacher. She was super excited about school all until the morning of. She woke up crying because she said she was so nervous. She kept saying her tummy hurt because she was so nervous. She finally was able to get out the door and a few hours later the nurse called and said she had been doing ok, but now she was crying again. She let her talk to me on the phone and the conversation was heartbreaking. She just said "mom please can you just come get me, I want to be home with you. When I said I couldn't, she just cried and said "please, just come at least give me a hug and I will feel better." It was heartbreaking. I felt like I had abandoned her. It was unusual for her and even her teacher wasn't sure what was wrong. She had a rough couple weeks and now we are fine. She just wouldn't hardly eat and would cry every morning, had a bloody nose, just very unusual things for her when she has always loved school.

So after our company left I took her out for a couple hours with just mom. Sometimes that is what you need!

Deacon is 4 now and he begins preschool tomorrow with his teacher Mrs. Brittany. She does a preschool of about 12 kids from her home. He will go Monday and Wednesday for 4 hours and was very excited that he is big enough to go!

I hope this year ends up being a great year of growth for the kids! They are growing so fast and time is flying by!

Literacy Girls

The past two summers Ella has had the privilege of being a part of a book club called Literacy girls. She loves reading, so she obviously loves the group. This summer there were 14 girls all between ages 10-12 who she would meet each week with and study books. The focus for this summer was great american women so they studied women like Clara Barton, Pocahontas, Helen Keller, Abigail Adams, Harriet Tubman, and Esperanza Rising. They took them through the history and did simulations of their life period and learned to knit and make different foods, quilt, find constellations, read braille, all sorts of incredible things. Jeri Wyn Mumford, the woman who puts it together does an incredible job and I am so grateful Ella gets to learn from her!

They were learning a conversational game here. 

Then they were going through the work simulation that John Smith went through. 

Today they got to learn archery and she did pretty well.

This was the last night where they had family night and did their skits about the women. Her group was responsible for Esperanza rising. 

I love that Ella loves to read and that she can keep studying wonderful things throughout the summer!