One Step at a Time: With Warm Weather Comes Chores

Hello everyone, our family has been so busy this spring. Each of us busy with so many things and as it warms up our to do list continues to grow. It's nice to get outside and get more exercise which our family could use but it is very very tiring.

Annika finished dance in April and started T-ball which will end at the end of May. She is growing and changing everyday and will be 7 in a month! She is reading chapter books if she finds any that interest her, the subject matter of many of them doesn't seem to be appropriate, it's too young or too old for her. Any ideas on this, suggestions would be welcome.

Keagan graduated head start and has been enjoying the freedom of long video game sessions now. He has been helping his dad around the house and making trips to the dump and hardware store. He is very excited to plant this years garden and he brought home plants they started at school that he's going to add.

Eva is continuing on her path to potty training, which is close to impossible seeing as how she can't tell us when she needs to go other than ripping off her diaper and going on the floor. She says some words but is very picky about when she says them. Unless it's "oh no" when her brother does something. She is a playground girl. We recently purchased a new swing set and got it put up (thank you Grandpa Don) in the back yard. Eva can climb the rock wall and goes down the big slide all on her own! She loves to swing too. This is how Annika was at that age, all though not the expert climber that Eva is. I have fearless girls, I love it.

Xander is (much like Keagan was) not impressed with the new swing set. He loves the fact that we take him outside to play next to it but don't try to set him in the race car swing or on the slide. He will scream like he's dying. You can put him at the bottom of the slide sometimes if you hang on to him and he'll go. He prefers to throw a football to his dad or try to play baseball. He is our sports fan. Just like his daddy, Xander is left handed. We have wondered for a while now but it's just plain as day now.

Xander has a temper, he hits and kicks and is a royal pain to his sister which is hard to break at this age and it's impossible to keep them separated so the sooner they are old enough to go into a room with an older sibling the better. He has had some episodes recently but it's our fault for missing a dose or two of medicine. In fact his reflux has gotten worse and sometimes even without the episodes he is getting sick and choking on it. It isn't pleasant, but no more pleasant than his sister using their room as a toilet. It's a gross job to be a parent but we just do what we have to and one of these days it might just all go away!

Joe has been going to a chiropractor and is feeling a lot better. I've been putting him to work around here every chance I can. He installed a new toilet for me last week, tilled up my garden and expanded it for me, him and his dad built the new swing set for the kids, he took my dad and the big kids to the river and they collected river rock for a fire pit in the back yard, and just misc. household chores and yard chores. He's been working with the Wallowa County Shooter's Association and the VFW in helping them come up with activities to promote their organizations to new members.

I have about 3 weeks of school left this term and I'm mixed with excitement to have a couple months off and fear that I won't get everything done by the end of this term. Going to school half time is allmost as hard as full time while being at home with the twins. I am going to have to work out a different system or something for the fall. As soon as this term is over I'm going to start working on our back room of our house. We've had paint and misc things to redo it for this entire winter waiting for a good time to start.

We will be redoing our roof in the near future also. Anyone who would like to give us a hand is more than welcome! While we're up there we're redoing our attic and removing an old heating system that was left up there. If possible we're hoping to lay flooring over the insulation and start using that added space for storage.

I hope everyone's spring is going well, keep in contact and come visit us when you get the chance!

Our soon to be firepit so we can relax in the backyard and watch the kids play