Happy Valentines Day!

Hugs and Love To All Of You! :)

Some Snow, Glow Night, Nasty Colds and Olympics Week

The kids were thrilled to wake up to about 2 inches of snow Saturday morning. :) I talked them into waiting until around 10 for it to warm up a bit before bundling up to head out.  Makin is usually not enthused about going out when Lorelei is, so after watching her for a bit he usually changes his mind and decides to join her. It actually works well this way because she can last way longer than he can in the cold, so it evens out and they are usually ready to come in at the same time. They loved helping Brad. And of course, gotta end our fun with hot chocolate and marshmallows. :)

We had some fun playing Go Fish and Old Maid. I love the egg cartons to hold their cards and I love watching them think through these games.

We then had our first official Glow Night. We had about 4-5 containers of glow bracelets sitting in a drawer so we opened a couple and the kids wore them on arms and legs and as necklaces while dancing around to Christian rap music in the dark! :) It was so much fun watching how the music brought out their dance moves! The extra bracelets lit up the floor and they loved grabbing them and throwing the whole pile in the air to rain down. We put a couple in balloons for them to hit around. They also have a some light up balls they had fun throwing and chasing. They then took all of them to the tub for a glow bath to finish out the fun. Its a great way to enjoy the darkness of winter evenings! (I was so disappointed in the lack of being able to capture this memory! The pictures cannot turn out in the dark, and when I tried a video it just showed up pitch black. I just sat back and tried hard to remember how much fun they had. I guess if we do it a few times each winter hopefully it will be something they remember.)

More snow fun later in the week...We must have gotten a little more snow, but not enough to really do a lot. It has been so cold we really haven't been able to enjoy it! I have to set the timer for Lorelei, who will play out in the snow even when its "feels like -7" and crazy numbers like that. She loves it and loves eating it. We also tried out spraying the snow colors and making water balloons with dye and freezing them. They are supposed to look like marbles when they are done. (If you try it, I'd recommend it being a two-adult job, but then again I don't have a lot of water balloon filling experience.) Figured we better do all the snow stuff we can in case we don't have another chance!

So, I'm going a little crazy on the lesson plans and themes but its just the way my brain likes to work. I get into teacher mode and could look up pinterest and print things for hours at a time (and sometimes do!). It actually has me somewhat excited for the month of February! Anyway, I have a different theme each week and find lessons for Lorelei as well as games, some for just her and some for all the kids, as well as a craft project for all of the kids to do together that goes with the theme. This week, it was the Winter Olympics! :)

Just a few of our activities...
Painting Olympic rings and then turning them into ice rinks...I tried a variation from what I saw on Pinterest and learned that they needed to be laminated! The girl's projects had some paint mixed in with the ice, and Makin refused to add water and mess up his painting job, so I laminated it later before making it into a rink. We did plenty of coloring pages, patterns, clothespin cards, and number puzzles, to name a few. They also loved the matching/memory game, but I forgot to get a picture of that. It really helped them learn the sports!

Makin's favorite winter sport is hockey. "Because I just like it." (His answer for everything, so I had to push more to get him to say more) "Because it has a stick and they hit a puck."

Lorelei's favorite winter sport is figure skating because "they ice skate really pretty."

It has been really fun getting the kids into the Olympics. I grew up watching the figure skating quite a bit and Brad grew up with great memories watching all of the winter sports. Both kids were super-pumped to get to watch these sports we were learning about all week. After the first night they were pretending to be snow boarders in the hallway. :) They were very unimpressed with the opening ceremonies and just kept wanting to know when we got to watch the sports. We have had some trouble with the timing since its right before bed, so may be catching things on the laptop instead. The first night went something like this. "Why is he all sparkly?" "When is the hockey going to be on?" "When are the boys going to be on?" "But, Makin, she is wearing green!" "Why does he look so girly?"   Ahhh the fun watching with a 3 and 5 year old! Can't imagine how it will be next winter Olympics when they are so much older!

Contrary to all the photos, we actually had a bit of a rough time this week. At the end of last week the girls we sit ended up going home because of a fever that started going around Allie's preschool. Tuesday afternoon Makin came down with a fever that finally tapered off Thursday. He was pretty rough and when this little guy is sick he wants nothing but to be held by mom 24/7. Thankfully now we are all just down to the sniffles so hopefully the rest of us keep the easy part of the cold and get better quick.

Beating The January Blues

We have been SOOOOO pent up this month! Very cold temps on so many of the days I can't believe it! And our friends in Virginia Beach have now had more snow than we have!!! Wishing we could teleport over there and have a snow play day with them. :) But, since I have yet to invent my longed-for teleportation device, we have been staying busy and keeping sane as best we can.

Fun Snacks

Desperate for fresh air visit to the park since it was "feels like 37 degrees"!

Shaving cream fun!

Makin always loves playing cars!

We have done quite a bit with Lorelei's school work lately as I seem to finally be getting the hang of when is a good time to do activities. We now do it occasionally in the morning, if she has time, and then usually after her quiet time/nap before the other kids wake up. Hoping this plan continues to work. If there are ever any games the other kids can do, we do them as a group, but not often. For some reason she just cherishes "work books" so we do a combo of writing practice/workbooks and then the educational games I have built up. Of course, I try to go with my weekly theme. I have been blessed and amazed by what I have found via pinterest and super-thankful for the home school moms out there who share their resources for free.
A. Maze. Ing.

We were very thankful for the YMCA's bounce house Saturday to get out some energy! Both kids loved it.

And of course...it is a never-ending stream of crafts. At least 5 days a week! On occasion I just let them paint plain paper, but I have been planning a lot of special themed ones because apparently, I'm insane. I cannot believe how much I let them use glitter! One of my favorites was definitely the penguins we made this week. Cutting practice and lots of gluing! They all did great! (I deliberately do not get the other kids in the pics with my kids as I don't want to worry about them being online if their parents would rather they not be. Just to be safe. :) Just know, often they are on the other side of the table! :) )

 "Mommy and me on a ship going to Gigi and Pop's house to Florida. The fish are puffer fish with pokies on them and they were surprised by our ship so they puffed up."

The kids were super pumped to go to Evan's basketball game Tuesday night! :) They love anytime we go out at night, and of course, love anything to do with Evan! They sat really well for the game. Just had to get a pic of us in our Columbus Discoveries colors. :)

We got lost of practice counting to 30 putting on 5 tattoos for 4 kids one morning. We have done tattoos, nails, glitter hair and glitter/lotion prints on their faces. Its amazing how girly you can get when cooped inside with these little girls!













And one of my best memories from the last several weeks was our trip to Omaha last Friday. Brad needed to take an exam in order to be Magento Certified. This is something his boss discussed before hiring him and was on the "to do" list. He crammed with a practice exam several times before the test and did very well on his exam that Friday morning! (Yes passed, which means he is officially magento certified!...which none of you really understand but its good for his job. :) Magento is the software he uses to build the commerce websites, if that helps.) He had the all-clear for the afternoon so we made the most of it.

We had a celebration lunch at one of or favorite restaurants, Red Robin!

Then we headed to the zoo to the Desert Dome and Kingdom of the Night before the kid's first Imax movie! (They are included in our membership!) They learned a lot about penguins. It was so fun hearing their reactions. Makin, "Are we moving?" and Lorelei smiled from ear to ear through the movie and said, "It looks like I can just reach out and touch them. Can I?"

Our Sporty 3D Glasses

Brad also got treated to a haircut at Sports Clips (they don't have one in Columbus and he loves that they do a head massage) before our usual Sams run.

Thanks for all the encouraging messages and phone calls about Brad's test. He loves hearing it! :)

And to finish out January, we had a quick visitor to brighten our evening when Papa came to pick up their vehicle that broke down over the last visit. We got treated out to eat and Lorelei got a few books read too. :) Thanks for the visit Papa!

Brad's Getting Healthy Update

Brad has been working hard on getting healthy since about June and at the end of September we started weighing him in almost every morning as a family and writing it down.

The last several months have been more than a bit discouraging. The pounds feel like they are just creeping off as slow as can be, staying in the same 7lb range for months at a time going up a little and down a little. He has been working out 4-5 days a week (most weeks, December was extra crazy with work and it may have been a bit less) and juicing or blending, for the majority, two meals a day. Yet between Sept 29th and now, he has only dropped 20 lbs. To get to his goal weight (what he weighed right out of HS) he still has about 58 lbs to go.

He is fitting in clothes he hasn't fit into for 6+ years, which is encouraging. If you think about how different his eating habits are it is awesome. He is actually vegetation probably 4+ days out of every

The kids and I had smoothies for supper one night like Daddy.

week! :) He used to balk at the idea to even go one day without meat! :)

So he decided on Monday the 20th he would start juicing for three days and then "semi juice" as I call it, which includes blends and just raw fruit or veggies aka an apple etc. And probably continue this plan for several weeks. We are also going to try having a "calorie day" each week, where he eats all three meals normal, to trick his body into realizing it needs to burn more calories. We have done a ton of reading on plateaus and this is our next attempt at seeing those numbers move down! He is also going to try exercising a bit over lunch or the afternoon after his early morning exercise at the YMCA.

He put the weight on over twelve years, but we sure wish it would go off a bit faster than this! :) Proud he is still working hard and love the kids seeing him be so healthy! This is what they will remember. :) Instilling those good habits in them early!

Hoping to have a better update in a month or two! :)

Ice Skating

Ever since we attempted ice skating when Lorelei was three, she has been looking forward to being five so she could try again.

January seemed like a good time to fit in an ice skating trip...sort of a winter fun bucket list item. Of course, Makin wanted to skate as well. When it comes to the Stahl children, three is not a good age for ice skating! :) He made it about 1/4 of the way around (if even that!) and was ready to be DONE. Actually about the same distance his big sis did when she was three but I made her go all the way around the rink. :) He had fun watching with Daddy (who we determined back in college is not gifted in the ice skating dept so we didn't even waste time renting him skates) who bought him a popcorn.

Alea said she was game to skate with us, so she met us in Fremont. I was VERY thankful for the 3:2 ratio for this outing. Lorelei went around many times with the "walker" and then the last 20-30 minutes she skated holding Alea and My's hands. She got to be pretty trusting that we would not let her fall and got pretty goofy and giggly towards the end. Somehow both of us managed to keep our balance so she was one blessed 5 year old with no hard falls! :) She tried it several times with no assistance because she wanted to be able to do it on her own, but after going short distances, decided she needed some help.

I may or may not add some videos with Brad's help. Sometimes its just not worth waiting and I have yet to learn myself! My apologies, another goal for myself I suppose! :)

Big Change and Winter Theme Fun

Well, we survived! We are now home-sitting 4+ days of the week. Quite an adjustment for this lady and the kiddos. Reminds me a bit of the first weeks on my own after going from one to two children...just with more glitter, paint, shaving cream and play dough. ;)

We have two girls, Allie and Aubree, coming over roughly four days a week, along with Drue two days. Their Grandma is going to try and watch them once a week but is also now fighting cancer so we may have them five days depending on how that goes. Their mom is a teacher, so we are thankful they are done at 4 pm and also that we will have school breaks!

It seems like its hardest on my kids, who have to adjust to sharing their toys and their mom, but I hope that everyone will get used to it soon and enjoy it. :)

We are full force in theme mode now that I have to Craft/Lesson Plan and I'm coordinating crafts and trying to make all of Lorelei's school lessons along with the same theme. So. Thankful. For. Pinterest. We are now working on numbers, and still reviewing a few letters she isn't as strong on...so getting close to that swimming reward! :) We are having a hard time making sure she gets school time in. Trying to do it before friends come because they aren't into the lessons and when they get here Lorelei wants to play with them...but trying to cram in school work before 7:30 proves a bit trying. We may end up doing nap time lessons too...have lots of kinks to work out.

A few highlights from our week:

Snowflake Fun...

Tuesday afternoon Brad and Lorelei had a father/daughter date to go see Frozen. She loved it and just soaked in the extra-specialness.















Snow Play Dough Is A Hit - snowman cookie cutters, buttons and black beans

We soaked up our weekend time. They are never long enough! It was Super Sensational Saturday at Columbus Public Library so we enjoyed getting out and having a little fun someone else planned! :) Crafts and snacks and of course, Legos. :)

We had a productive weekend and worked on projects as well, like getting cork boards up for displaying art work. The kids had lots of good daddy time, including a quick trip to Menards Saturday, and lots of fun riding bikes (with their new bells from Nana and Papa they have been excited to use) and making their own pizzas on Sunday.

New Years and January Nana and Papa Visit

Our New Years Eve Day went about par for the rest of the year, but looking at the bright side, we have a big enough vehicle for me to tote around five kids if needed! We spent the day renting a car, selling our car to someone via craigslist, and then buying a mini van. It has a few little problems but considering we got it for less than our car, we think we found a great deal. The space was much-needed. We had planned to attend the 1C New Years Eve party, but since Makin missed a nap because of the crazy day (our van was in Lincoln, so all previous mentioned chaos, plus 3 hrs drive time) we decided we better get them to bed rather than celebrate.

Thankfully we had reason to celebrate the next day because Nana and Papa came for a visit! :) We celebrated the end of New Years Day with champagne and sparkling grape juice (not M, he just had juice) so at least it seemed a little extra special! :)

We enjoyed just chillin' around the house Thursday. It was much needed.

Friday we drove my dad to the airport as he was flying to Wisconsin to pick up my grandparent's old car. he had a whirlwind trip while we enjoyed visiting the zoo with Nana.

It was VERY cold, so we didn't venture very far. A visit to the aquarium and rain-forest were just right. Top - looking at sting rays, Bottom right - amazing fish mom saw, we decided to call it a scarf fish :), Bottom left - baby hippo! :) As far as I know first I've seen!

Love You Nana! :)

Kids at the top of the waterfall, Makin and I crossing the rope bridge, and then kids at the bottom of the waterfall. :)

Saturday was spent with Mom and I going out for coffee and a few errands, followed by an afternoon of cooking! Reason #8,955 my mom is amazing, she spends all afternoon on her vacation helping me cook and then doing the dishes from cooking to boot. I feel a lot better having some meals set in the freezer for the craziness I expect from the next month. Dad made it back and we all enjoyed a night out, which I failed to take any pictures of. :)

Thanks for a nice visit Nana and Papa! :)