Atlas is Eight!

I have a son who is 8... What?? I don't know how I keep being surprised at my kids getting older, but it never fails to catch me off guard when I say their new age out loud for the first time. When I list out the ages of my 5 kids to someone I still keep saying 7 for Atlas! It's been almost a month already and I can't seem to wrap my head around it! I think part of it is that when we first started going to park day 7ish years ago there were some boys around the age of 8 that came often and I would always think, "I wonder what it's like to have a son that age." and now here I am! I know there is a big responsibility that comes when raising children in general, but for sons it feels really intimidating to me. Men have the potential to be amazing builders or insanely destructive. Just look at history. I know women can be that way too, but I think men have more of a tendency to be extreme and try dangerous things. Sometimes those dangerous things can lead to big discoveries and advancements for humanity and other times they can destroy countries. In raising 3 girls and 2 boys so far (I know I'm still not very far in this journey!) a few differences I see are that the girls usually side with reason a little easier. Also, admitting failures and recognizing weaknesses comes a little more quickly for them than for the boys. With that in mind, I think as long as the girls have solid support they're more than likely going to turn out pretty balanced. For the boys, if I'm not actively guiding them back to balance and helping them see that selfishness is not fulfilling and hurting others or exerting control over them is not how a man of God would act then I don't know where they would end up. I guess all that to say that I am feeling the weight of raising a growing boy of Atlas's age. I consider it a great honor to be the one tasked with raising him though!

I guess I put video games and school in the same place in Atlas's blog because they seem so linked for him. As soon as he is done with school and chores he asks if he can play on the "big TV". He means the family room TV. He has to ask because you can see it from the dining table where we do school, so everyone has to be done or very close to finishing school before the family room TV comes on for anything other than a school lesson. I know it might seem controversial to some and everyone has their own opinion on video games and screen time, but I do NOT have a time limit for video games. I only tell Atlas that he must have all of his school and chores done and he has to turn it off right away if/when we have to leave for an event of any kind. I have a no individual media (TV, Video games, computer Kindle, etc.) after dinner time rule. If we do watch something we watch it all together. I will tell you on a regular school day the time available to play video games seems to be between 3 and 6pm (it just so happens to be the time everyone is usually done with school) and that's if we didn't have an event that day. For example today, We got school done at about 1:45pm that left him with 30 minutes to play until we had to leave for co-op. We didn't get home from co-op until 5:20 or so because we had to drop by the store after. That left him with another 45 min or so to play before he had to stop for dinner. So he played a total of an hour and 15 minutes. Also he has to take turns with his 5 siblings throughout the day as well. We only own one Nintendo Switch and yes we have three TVs, but one is pretty tiny and everyone's favorite is the family room TV. It sounds a lot like I'm trying to defend myself, but I'm honestly trying to give a good idea about what Atlas's video game life is like right now. On a weekend he gets to play a good amount of video games, yes, but what I love is that I'm not constantly having to count how much time he's on it and very often he'll turn it off voluntarily to go outside to play or play something else with his siblings inside or watch Piper for me while I work for a few dollars. It's important skill to learn to know when to take a break. He also has to take a break if he's getting too upset while playing which still happens sometimes, but much more rarely than before. He's talented a video games and he loves them and I love that we get to share our love for playing Zelda now that he's old enough to handle a game like that. He still wants to be a video game maker when he grows up! Atlas was very excited to start Super Friday this past fall! His first semester he took Duct Tape Warfare, Perler Beads and PE. This spring he is taking Chess, Spanish and Rubik's Cube. He has enjoyed all of his classes so far! His favorite overall is chess. I look forward to seeing what classes he'll take in the future.

Atlas enjoys having lots of siblings, but also enjoys alone time. He will play with everyone and has fun. After a while he will decide that is enough time with people and either go play a video game on his own or go outside when no one else is outside. Jane and Atlas are the closest! That just comes from being the oldest and learning more friendship skills and having more maturity. On the other hand, they are still young and will fight often. They usually make up pretty quickly though. Xan and Atlas are good buddies. They continue to have a lot of the same interests. They fight the most over playing video games together because they want to play together, but can't seem to decide how to play the video game together or someone is mad someone else won. Still working on sportsmanship with everyone! Flynn and Atlas have such a stereotypical brother relationship. It's rough and tumble and usually someone is screaming at someone else like they are so mad one second (like playing chase) but then it will turn on a dime and they are laughing. It's so foreign to me since it was just me and my brother, but Sam assures me this is normal brother behavior. It's like they bond by irritating each other. I don't know how, but they do seem to be getting closer as Flynn gets older. Atlas LOVES Piper. She can do no wrong. She is the apple of his eye. He likes to babysit her to earn some money, but he also just loves be around her anytime really. It makes me so happy to see protective, loving older brother to a little sister behavior. It just took having a brother old enough to appreciate a baby sister. ;) Atlas is continuing to grow in his relationships with his siblings and I'm proud of him for it!

Since we did a birthday experience that we couldn't invite friends to (Monster Jam) I told Atlas he could choose 3 families to have a video game/chess afternoon with on his birthday. He chose the Cotas, the Wilsons and the Scotts. Even though it was just 3 families was a big group of boys and it was so much fun!! They all had a blast taking turns playing video games, chess, looking at the new Zelda guide book I got for Atlas and playing outside. Definitely the most laid back birthday get together ever. All of the boys that came are people Atlas enjoys hanging out with the most, Edison, Elliott, Calvin, Josiah, Collin, Davin, Hunter, Titus & Sean. Atlas picks great friends. I'm so glad he's got good gamer buds who enjoy the same things he does.

I continue to see similarities between Sam and Atlas. One recent connection is enjoying playing Chess! Atlas has yet to beat Sam in chess, but he has come close once or twice. He will play Sam any chance he gets. Another thing I noticed this year is they both have the tendency to get really into something for a while and only want to think about and buy things for that one interest and then one day it's like they've totally moved on from it and are on to the next hyper interest. I will say they might swing back around to former interest from time to time, but their tunnel vision on one thing for certain periods of time is definitely something they share. They have also enjoyed playing each other in Mario Tennis matches recently. Atlas has a few wins against Sam in that regard. Last thing for this post I will note about similarities is that if I don't remind Atlas to eat meals he will forget. Sam does this sometimes too! Again, it's about that tunnel vision on interests. It can be hard to get their attention at times, but I do love their focus and passion!

Weight

Birth: 8lbs 7oz

1 Year Old: 22 lbs

2 Years Old: 27 lbs

3 Years Old: 32 lbs

4 Years Old: 35 1/2 lbs

5 Years Old: 37 3/4 lbs

6 Years Old: 42 lbs

7 Years Old: 47 lbs

8 Years Old: 48 lbs

Atlas is a thin guy! He only gained 1 pound last year. He is a pretty picky eater so it’s not super surprising. Although he would live off of chips if I let him. I would think his love of chips would give him a little bit more fat on his bones, but I guess he has a pretty fast metabolism or just uses it all up with all the jumping he does on the trampoline and jumping up and down playing video games! I’ll keep trying to work in more protein to help him grow strong!! <3

Height

Birth: 21 1/2"

1 Year Old: 29"

2 Years Old: 33"

3 Years Old: 36"

4 Years Old: 3' 2.5" (38.5")

5 Years Old: 3' 6.25"

6 Years Old: 3' 8.75"

7 Years Old: 3’ 10”

8 Years Old: 4’ 1/2”

I can definitely tell Atlas is growing! His pants were all above his ankles at the beginning of this Winter and his shorts are looking smaller too. If my hunch is right he is still below average in height at this point and that's alright. He might catch up later and even if he doesn't there is nothing wrong with being on the shorter side of the percentiles. As long as your feeling good and eating relatively well, that's all that matters.

A Year in Pictures: Firsts & Favorite Moments

If you read Flynn's Birthday post you've read my reasons for changing the name of this section. I think I'll add the description to each birthday blog until I've changed this section name on all of them though. 

I started a "firsts" section as part of a birthday blog post back when Jane turned 1 and I've told myself ever since that I could still find a "first" for every month of the year at least for the first few years of their life. The firsts I found grew more and more unconventional through the years. And at some point I had to add in favorite moments to the firsts with a birthday blog post. I realize now, sure, I do love finding the new experiences that they had through the previous year, but I think I like watching them grow and change more. It has become less about finding "firsts" and more about finding a picture from each month of the year. So I'm renaming this section again as A Year in Pictures! It never gets old looking back through pictures of the previous year to see how my kids grow and what they got to experience! I do believe, as unconventional as they are, the vast majority of these pictures are indeed firsts. We definitely had a cluster of firsts in May, August and September. Enjoy watching Atlas grow from a 7 year old to an 8 year old. I sure did!

Arcade with Friends - February 2023

Playing a Zelda game! - March 2023

Strawberry picking with friends - April 2023

Trading Pokemon cards - May 2023

Foam Machine! - May 2023

Independent Reader! - May 2023

Stopping to smell the flowers - June 2023

Buying a toy with chore money - July 2023

Lost tooth! - August 2023

Super Friday - August 2023

So many firsts at Tejas. First of all first overnight stay at Tejas. Followed by:
Crate stacking, wall climbing, zip lining - Wall and Lake, Ax throwing, Canoeing, mud pit experience.
He was up for it all! - September 2023

Zelda Themed Trunk or Treat - October 2023

Balloon float creation - November 2023

Christmas at Tejas with Friends - December 2023

Learning a Rubik's Cube - January 2024

Monster Jam! - February 2024

Theater Play (Matilda) - February 2024

Roller Skating - February 2024

Favorites

Atlas's favorite place to be is in the family room playing video games either by himself or with anyone who wants to play, but his second favorite place to be is outside. We are grateful this year did not include any trips to the ER for Atlas like the previous year. (although Flynn did earn himself his first urgent care visit, BOYS!) I'd like to say he's avoided the ER this year because he has become more careful, but he's just as clumsy as ever. I don't know how to help him be less clumsy because he gets his clumsiness from me! Thankfully most of the time our clumsiness doesn't end up in doctor visits, just bandaids. He has no lasting trauma, physically, mentally or emotionally from his broken arm and stitches. I'm finally starting to emotionally recover too and don't cringe every time they go out to play in the backyard after dinner. He loves to all the regular backyard activities, jump on the trampoline, swinging, monkey bars, chase and races. He recently started loving throwing the frisbee and I am over the moon about it!! I've been hoping at least one of the kids could be my frisbee buddy! He enjoys throwing his light up ring disc the most right now. I'm enjoying this new stage of starting to explore sports and being open to my sporting instruction!

Atlas is picky and can forget to eat meals sometimes, but he does have his favorite meals and snacks! His favorite dinners are hamburger helper! Three cheese or double cheeseburger flavors only. Ketchup hamburgers are his go to fast food meal, Sam's grilled burgers are his fav. cheesy bread, breakfast for dinner with pancakes and sausage. Crust Pizza is his new favorite restaurant. Just barely edging out McDonalds. He still likes going to Cliantro's, but it's under new management and is getting a new name, so I'm not sure if it will stay a favorite. Oh and of course it's always exciting when we go to Cici's. Lunches are not his favorite, but he will eat a big apple and some salami or pepperoni or ramen to hold him over. Breakfasts are usually mini pancakes or sausage biscuits. Other favorite snacks and treats are popcorn, Cool Ranch Doritos, Cheetos, Chex Mix, cookies, ice cream sandwiches, Cheez it Puffs, french fries, donuts, ice cream and Hershey's drops candy.

Going to Monster Jam brought back monster trucks as Atlas's favorite toys! He was so surprised when I got him the big size of Son Uva Digger for his birthday! He loves having all the sizes of his favorite monster trucks. He has the big, medium and mini sizes of Grave Digger and the big and medium size of Son Uva Digger. He's working on getting the mini size he's missing soon! Other favorite toys are black siren head and little siren heads figures, Godzilla figure, light up ring frisbee, Pokémon cards, and his Snorlax squishmallow. 

Video Games still get the majority of Atlas's attention. His favorite are constantly changing, but he always has some he comes back to pretty often. Recent favorites have been Mario Wonder, Wrestledunk Sports, Glyph,  Flat Heroes, WarioWare Move It, and Monster Jam Steel Titans 2. Games he always comes back to are Sonic Frontiers, Clone Drone in the Danger Zone, Mario Kart, What the Golf, Mario Odyssey (or pretty much any of his Mario games), Kirby's Forgotten Land, Boomerang Fu, and Super Smash Bros. I mentioned in his last birthday post that he started playing Zelda: Breath of the Wild! I was so thrilled to share my love of Zelda with him! He enjoyed it and beat the game! I bought Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for myself and he will play it every so often, but I think the amount that you can do in that game sort of overwhelms him! It's so huge! He may come back to it when he's a little older. One of his favorite things to do is to look for new demos on the Nintendo eShop. I only let him look for new ones with me on his special nights, so he really looks forward to it. It's like this generations video game rentals. I have fond memories of my mom taking my brother and me to rent video games. It was always a special treat.

Atlas only has a few favorite movies and TV shows since the majority of the time he gets to use the TV he uses it to play video games. So it only makes sense his favorite movies are The Super Mario movie and both Sonic movies. He can't wait until Mario 2 and Sonic 3 come out!! His favorite shows are Number Blocks, Sonic Prime and Bluey.

I think the most growth I have seen in Atlas this year is in reading!! I just looked back at the favorite book section of his 7 year old post and it says he was still perusing books and reading was not easy for him yet. Total change!! He is easily reading on his own now. I got a few of Scholastic's Branches series of books from the library to help Jane grow her reading skills because it didn't come naturally to her and I found a series that was about video games and Atlas took off! I thought he was just sort of reading the words he knew already in the books, but instead he was able to read them completely with no problem! In school I started doing decoding words with him and I kept being surprised with how many words he knew how to pronounce that I didn't even know he had ever seen. I love how much he has grown in reading this year. The books he likes most are humorous or of course about video games and he really wants them to have at least some illustrations on each page. Some of his favorite books or series have been: Press Start (biggest favorite, he keeps asking when they next one releases) Kung Pow Chicken, Boris, Haggis and Tank, Mario Movie early reader, He just now started enjoying The Bad Guys graphic novels. His favorite read aloud we've done was Peter Nimble and his fantastic eyes and his favorite audiobook was George's Marvelous Medicine. I can't wait to see him continue to grow as a reader!

Atlas's favorite activities include a good mix of relaxing and active. As I said earlier Chess has become a favorite of his. He loves trading Pokemon cards and talking about video games with his friends. He also enjoys throwing the frisbee, riding bikes and playing with duct tape warfare weapons. His standbys swimming, swinging, and jumping on the trampoline are still holding strong as well.

His favorite place other than home is now Camp Tejas which makes my heart happy! He says our Labor day Camp Tejas trip was his favorite memory from the year. He also LOVED Monster Jam. The Beach is still way up there too. I would say those are the top three. He started being a little concerned with germs and decided he didn't want to go to Cidercade this year. Other favorites are Marmee and Pappaw's house, the park, the skating rink, the library and the MOCO fair.

Atlas is my goofball. He loves to make people laugh by being ridiculous. I love it. When it comes to serious things he is very concerned with justice and things being how they should be. He will often say to me, "But that's not right." or "That's not how it should be." I love his fair-mindedness. It can be hard when as a parent you can't always be "fair" when you have a child who is very concerned with fairness. Recently while we were going though book about siblings it explained the difference between equal and fair in a way kids can understand and I think it really helped Atlas not be so concerned with everything being exactly equal. He definitely helps me make sure I'm being as fair as I can be. I remember writing a 3 year old post for Atlas and saying my sweet, chill, content boy had taken a backseat to todderness for a while, but I knew my chill boy would come back to me. I think it took me some time to realize it, but he's pretty much all the way back to my sweet, chill, content boy that I said would be back someday. (that is unless he's losing in video games, we're still working on it.) He has gained some more confidence this year and settled into what he really likes to do. I think that has given him back his level of calmness that was always inside him. I'm loving this age of him still loving his momma a lot and not being afraid to show it, but also having his own independence and confidence. I'm praying he continues to grow into a man that cares for others and follows after his passions!

Happy 8th Birthday Atlas! We love you so much!

Micah 6:8

He has shown you, O man, what is good;

And what does the Lord require of you

But to do justly,

To love mercy,

And to walk humbly with your God?

Spring Adventures 2021

Still plugging along almost 3 years behind on blog posts. Maybe I can make it my summer project to catch up to current time since Piper will be almost 2 then and potentially easier to entertain than last summer? At any rate, I'll try to keep up my paragraph or 15 minute a day habit of working on it until I get some extra time to work on it. I love looking back on these seasonal posts too much to just give up on 3 years of our lives! So here I go!

Remember when we were getting Covid stimulus packages?? Well, we decided to use one of our stimulus packages for a new playset for the kids. The old one we had was given to us by our neighbors and it had seen it's day and was falling apart. The kids adore the new one!! I can say 3 years later they still use it daily! No regrets on this purchase.

He gave the best hugs!

Alright. I'm trying to keep most notes on here short, but I can't keep this section short. One year after my grandfather's passing we were finally able to hold a celebration service of his life. We attended his Veteran's Service the day before the Celebration service. It was done so well and we were all crying. Just following the Veteran's service my dad said he wanted to try to find Papa's gravestone. As we arrive at the grave site we were surprised to find the worker had just finished digging the hole for Papa's ashes. He asked us if Mama wanted to lower it in and if each of us wanted to add the first bit of dirt on top to say goodbye. It was so sweet of him to offer and it touched us all. I can't write about it without tearing up. My grandmother lowered the ashes in and my mom helped steady her. The rest of us took turns adding a bit of dirt to start, not a dry eye around. It was not what we had expected, but it was wonderful. The next day was definitely just as emotional if not more. My grandmother had asked if anyone in the family would speak at the celebration service for Papa. All of us could say a lot, but not many wanted to do it in front of a crowd. I said I would. I'm so glad I did! When I got up to give my speech I was definitely nervous, I had barely gotten in my seat before my name was called. (a mix up about how childcare was taken care of delayed us) It may have been better to go up there right away and not give myself too much to think about beforehand anyway. Once I got started with the speech I calmed some. I only broke down to cry one time! My cousin's son Colin also gave a speech. I asked specifically to go first as to not follow the super sweet kid! (in fact the speaker after Colin did say "How can I follow that?!") He did amazing!! We were all so impressed. A few parts of Colin and my speeches had similarities. The biggest ones were that Papa had a way of making people feel special and cared for and that we both wanted to follow his example of loving others well. The whole service had people coming up to share just how caring and wonderful my grandfather was. It was a beautiful service. People came up to me and told me how well I did with my speech and I specifically remember my dad had such praise for me and praise from him is not easily achieved. God gave me the words to say and the courage to say it and for that I am grateful.

 I would like to share the entirety of my speech here so I have it somewhere other than just sitting on my hard drive. Maybe it can help my grandfather's love and care for everyone continue to inspire others to do the same. 

Hi, My name is Christy Daniels, daughter of Gary and Marianne, The youngest grandchild of 

Joyce and Paul. They have always been known to me as Mama and Papa.

When I started thinking about what I would say about Papa I wasn’t sure because there is so 

much I could say! So I tried to think about what he would want me to say. 

It’s not hard to know what was most important to Papa because he made sure he told us when 

he found out he had cancer. The most important thing to him was to make sure we knew God 

and Jesus Christ as our savior before he left us. So with that in mind What I want to focus on is 

my last conversation with him. Which consisted mostly of us sharing our testimonies with each 

other. 

He grew up going to church with his family. Around the age of 10 he responded to an alter call 

to give his life to Jesus. He says he had been feeling the call for awhile but was too shy to go up 

to the front. One Sunday he took the first step down the aisle and the next thing he knew he 

was at the front. That was the beginning of his personal relationship with God.

Then He went on to say to have true repentance you have to know you are a sinner. For him his 

sin was he was a thief. Nothing big, but he’d steal a quarter from his mom’s purse or a candy bar 

from the store. And he’d get caught by his dad who was quite the disciplinarian. It didn’t make 

him stop it just made him better at getting away with it. So now he wasn’t just a thief but a liar 

too. 

He said around 13 or so he started feeling like he needed to change this about himself, but 

didn’t know how. So he prayed for God to change him since he couldn’t change and conquer 

this sin on his own. The change wasn’t overnight but a few months went by and then he 

realized the urge to steal was gone and on the rare times it did come up he had to power to say 

no.

From there his relationship with God grew. I know he felt he had many other failures, but he 

kept learning and he never let those failures defeat him. He never stopped growing and getting 

closer to God.

When he finished his testimony Mama asked me to share my own. I was touched to realize it 

was actually very similar. When I was very young I prayed with my mom and accepted Jesus into 

my heart. But around the age of 13 I realized I had a problem with sin. It was anger and pride. I 

would let anger control me and I used my words to bring others down to feel better than them. 

I didn’t want to change, but I felt God telling me it wasn’t ok to follow Him and have this in my 

life. So I asked God to change me since I could not do it on my own. And just like Papa, it wasn’t 

overnight but months later I realized anger didn’t control me anymore and I now hated to make 

someone feel bad. I still struggle with anger and pride at times, but I do not live in slavery to it. 

God gave me and Papa victory over sin. And all we had to do was have a willing heart and ask 

for him to change us. I know He can do the very same thing for you! In honor of Papa I am 

asking you to join me and examine your heart and ask God if you need his help to change 

something in your life that needs to change in order for you to love God and others better.

I can’t speak about Papa and not talk about the impact he had on me. Everything reminds me of 

all the things he did for me: from my walls he helped paint, the blinds he hung in my windows, 

to the van that I drive. The one he called and offered to me having no knowledge that my car 

had broken down that same day. 

It wasn’t just me he did things like that for. Everyone in the family has stories like those. It even 

extended beyond family because everyone he cared for was like family to him. You didn’t have 

to be blood for him to care for you like family.

He was always thinking of us and how he could do more for us and others. 

He had this unique ability to make everyone feel special. Even if you knew someone else was 

special to him that didn’t make you feel any less special in his eyes. He made everyone feel 

special in a real and personal way. I imagine this is a small glimpse of how we’re all special to 

God. Somehow he figured out how to do it in a human way and I think we should do our best to 

follow his example.

This whole past year I’ve kept thinking that I can’t believe he’s not here anymore. I know this 

might sound cliched, But really he is. He has left a legacy of doing good and it is carried on 

through all of the lives that his kindness touched. We are who we are because of him. And I for 

one am very glad. The good that he accomplished in his life was and is eternal.

I will say I’m always going to miss his great hugs, his smiling face when I walked through the 

door, the way he said my name, his Donald Duck voice and many other things, but mostly I’ll 

miss the general warmness he carried with him everywhere he went and how he loved so well.

I’d like to end with this Bible verse.

Philippians 1:6

being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it 

until the day of Jesus Christ

Phew, that was good to get out, but emotional and heavy. So let's follow that up with something light! By this time in March 2021, I was fully back into anime with Sam! I love Attack on Titan so much I had to get myself a shirt! Still one of my favorite shirts. We started our anime date nights on Saturdays and began reading manga together around this time too. I think our first series to read together was Demon Slayer. We have read many more Manga series together since. I love it!!

Xan was about to turn 3 and she basically potty trained herself. She was ready! She is the youngest of mine to potty train and was probably the easiest to get the hang of the gist of it, but also had the most regression weeks where we would have lots of accidents. So I probably still prefer a 3 1/2 age for potty training because I will take dealing with diapers over cleaning up accidents any day. She still did very well! Proud of my girl!

A little home school update here! Jane was in 1st grade and read Go Dog Go all on her own! She still would not read unless I required it though. Atlas knew 36 sight words in preschool and finished up his first three preschool explode the code books! I was very pleased with their progress!

Thanks to a great tax refund (I think it was still apart of Covid relief efforts) we were able to replace our old roof and fix a beam that was sagging. It was such a burden lifted off of my shoulders. It was something I knew needed to be done, but I wasn’t sure how to afford it. I know we are paying for it now in inflation, but I’m still glad it helped pay for our roof when we needed it.

We had a wonderful spring of science co-op! I decided to put all our classes for the semester together here. We learned about the scientific method, plants and how they grow, animal husbandry, growing mealworms, and the science of birds. There was a birthday celebration tacked on to one or two of them as well, hence the piñata. :)

I did a birthday co-op for Xan as well when she turned 3. Just cupcakes and dissecting owl pellets. I did owl pellets because she has always had an interest in skeletons. She loved it! And everyone else seemed to enjoy it too. She received a few presents which she loved of course!

Our homeschool group had an Easter party! The kids had fun hunting some eggs. I don’t remember anything else about the event other than it was Flynn’s first hunt experience.

I really do enjoy Easter. We do a small family celebration with basically no obligations! I hide eggs, the kids love finding them and we go to Cici’s for lunch. Usually we do confetti eggs later that day or the day after. All very relaxed and fun!

Alexandria turned 3!! This was when I changed birthday’s from parties to experiences, so Xan got a tiny party with co-op and then a trip to the Zoo which as you can tell from the pictures, she adored!! I need to take her back. I think this was the last time we were there. After our zoo trip we went back home to rest and do cake and presents at our house then back out to Marmee’s house for a birthday swim and Marmee’s present! She loved her day! <3

 

In mid April it was finally warm enough to break out our makeshift backyard slip n slide! Just a tarp with some soap and a sprinkler. The kids love it. Jane and Atlas love to go down the slide while Xan and Flynn hang out in the water at the bottom.

My only note here is Beautiful spring park days. We love park day!!! Alexandria learned to climb the rock wall. Woohoo!

 We made it to the MOCO Fair!! The kids loved it! All of it! Grateful my mom could come with me to keep up with everyone. Look at all their smiles. Makes me happy to see them happy. I enjoyed it too though! Jane was big enough to ride some of the big rides with me! I have my thrill seeking buddy. So much fun! We can’t wait to go this year!

Since I have no where else to catalog my drawing journey I thought I may as well do it here! From my first drawing of Levi for Sam's Birthday I had found a new hobby! I realized I loved drawing anime characters. It had been a childhood dream of mine and now that I was finally capable of it I was hooked! I drew every chance I got! The guy above with the white hair and blindfold is Gojo and I drew him in about 15 minutes while Jane was doing independent school work. Probably my fastest drawing ever. Not my best of course, but I just still couldn’t believe I could do it! I drew Goku the night before my speech for Papa. It helped me relax and he is such a lighthearted yet courageous character. It helped me relax and gave me courage! By the time I drew Rengoku, firey hair guy, Sam told me he thought I was better than I knew and I should buy actual drawing tools. Like maybe there was something better for me to use than just sharpies and the kids crayons. So I did and I couldn’t believe when I finished Shikamaru that he looked almost exactly like I wanted him too. My dad thought I had just colored it not drawn the whole thing. I thought that was a pretty good compliment. Sam was not surprised, in a really supportive way. He knew if I had the right tools I was capable of that kind of drawing. His confidence in my abilities spurred me on to try drawings I didn’t think I could do! Friends have told me they are impressed with my drawings and that has been so encouraging, but I always like to follow that up with telling them I believe my abilities are just from trying, learning, spending time on it and having the right tools! Having an open mindset is key. I believe anyone is capable of creating great drawings because just a few years ago I was only capable of stick figures. ;) If I can do it, you can too!! If you really want to learn to draw, I believe in you! Don’t give up. 

Before I had my nice drawing tools I would do the outline in sharpie and color it with crayons. Once I had my new tools I started my drawings with an outline using a mechanical pencil. (seen above) I was still learning to make light strokes that I could erase. When I finished the outline I traced over with a micron pen and erased the pencil lines. I finished by coloring with Bianyo alcohol-based markers. Later on I bought some Prismacolor colored pencils that I used to add extra details and more shading to the coloring of my drawings as well. I documented my new drawing process while I drew Tanjiro. I lose track of time when I draw. It’s something I enjoy so much!

A few weeks after Easter we had our annual hunt at Marmee and Pappaw's house! Pappaw always has such great hiding places. The kids were really excited to find the money egg!

We made it out to our friend Ariella’s party! The kids had such a fun time! I was so obsessed with drawing at this point that I was making cards every chance I got! Nowadays I can only find time to make my own kids' birthday cards. One day I’d like to get back to making everyone cards. Maybe I will once I finally catch up with my blog. Haha!

Just the next day I went to my sweet friend Mel's baby shower! I took Jane with me and she got to play with a couple of her friends while we were there. I specifically remember talking about feeling really good with my decision to have just 4 kids. Little did I know Piper would be on her way at the end of this same year.

Jane got to have a fun play date with her besties, Paige and Cambrie after gymnastics one day. They had such a fun time dressing up together!

On Mother's day Sam's brother Travis was in town with his sons because his wife Cerena was working a market that weekend in Houston. They came to hang out with us while Cerena was working. Sam grilled, the kids played, it was good. Have I mentioned before that I don't like mother's day? It just all feels so forced and why do we want a break from being a mother for mother's day? It doesn't make sense. Plus, which mother gets celebrated most? Me? My own mother, my grandmother? It's just not my fav. But I do love to do a Mother's day questionnaire with the kids. I love to hear their answers.

My notes here are: Jane is truly helping with dinner now, not just playing at helping. I also wrote that I feel like we had a pretty set routine and work is finally feeling really good with my new job. 

We had not been good about flossing for a while. We seem to go in and out of the habit for some reason. One night Atlas came out from his room and complained that his tooth hurt. I thought it was just another excuse to get out of bed, but when I took a look at where he told me it hurt I saw his tooth was turning grey! I couldn't believe I hadn't caught it before it had gotten to that point. We quickly got into the dentist and had to get a pediatric dentist recommendation to have the work done. He did well, it got fixed. He's just got some silver caps on 3 molars until those baby teeth fall out much later.

It was Jane's 7th birthday! Apparently it was a really rainy day. (That’s what my notes tell me) So we pretty much stayed inside and just did presents and cake on her actual birthday. Jane loved to go through the car wash so we did it a few days later when the rain had gone away. She enjoyed her day! She wanted one last big party before I stopped doing parties, so we kept it simple on her birthday.

We finally got to go back inside the library!! It was the first time in a year and a half! I had been avoiding the library since a month before Flynn was born. As soon as I was ready to take my little baby inside the library Covid showed up and closed down the library. :( we missed it soooo much!! It was so good to be back!

We had a big ol’ pool party for Jane's 7th birthday party complete with a homemade Elsa cake! I think all the friends she really wanted to be there were able to make it! It made for a great party. She loved it!! We all had a great time but man, looking back at this I am so glad that I don’t do parties anymore!! Yes, it's fun, but it's so much planning and it's exhausting for me, especially since I would have to plan now 5 birthday parties each year! I enjoy the experiences so much more. I look forward to planning the experiences they want to do. It's so much less pressure. 

1 John 4:7-8

Beloved, let’s love one another; for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.