2015 New Years Resolutions

Paul:
read more
Play less video games
Buy a new practice
Make my body a priority
Buy a house

Eirik
Read Percy Jackson series
Play more skylanders giants
Work harder to earn more money
Coach pitch baseball- spring
Tae Kwon do- year round
Swimming- summer
Willow brook- summer
Soccer- fall
Basketball - winter


Joren:
controlling my temper
Help mom
Keep my personal space
Get better at math
Be a better reader
Get a full body wetsuit
Baseball- spring
Swimming- summer
Willowbrook- summer
Gymnastics-?
Soccer- fall
Basketball- winter



Teig
Better at listening
Learn all my letters
start reading lessons with mom
Swimming- summer
Tumbling- winter
Baseball -summer
Preschool- fall

Juni:
walk, talk and feed myself

Mom:
Be present and not distracted with my kids
Plan FHE lessons ahead
Make book with pictures and stories about ancestors
Get deeply involved in my kids sports endeavors- help them succeed
Design our dream home
Pay off high interest loans
Put more time into my relationships with my grandparents
Develop more friendships outside the church
Focus on teaching kids principles
Have a great time in lake Powell and Disneyland
Be more involved at the kids schools
Once a week yoga class in spring
Make some cute things for Juni

Joren 6 years old

I mentioned in my Christmas post that Joren has been "naughty". He has put on full display his nonconformist personality at school this year. He continues to refuse to wear anything I choose, mostly just because he did not choose it. His clothes all have to fit snug therefor he likes to wear teigs clothes even when the arms go only to his elbows or the legs are far too short. He likes Teigs winter coat best too and will dig in his heals and throw a fit so I pick my battles and just get him out the door looking mostly decent most days. He hated for me to comb his hair and rhns away or screams when i do, every morning. He gets in trouble at school for things like butting his head into his teacher, hiding under her desk, teasing people, getting in peoples space, jumping in people, taking things that font nelong to him, hiding in the closet, pretending his ears dont work and refusing to do what he is asked. His recent report card said he frequently misses instructions and needs to be helped individually because he was not listening. I have had frequent phone calls, emails and conferences with his teacher, the school secretary and the principle about how to help him get his behavior in line. Jorens teacher Ms. Edwards devised a program where he would receive compliments for good behavior and when he received 15 compliments he would earn a paper airplane throwing recess. He worked hard and when he reached his goal he made a paper airplane for every kid in the whole kindergarten and first grade. Joren thought is was pretty awesome that he could make better airplanes than many of the older kids. He felt pretty important! When he had earned 25 compliments Ms. Edwards made a giant volcano explode in their classroom. Joren got to stand up at the front of the room and got credit for earning it with is good behavior. I like to think that the incentives helped. Im not sure, but its bound to get better. Last week in his prayer he said, "please help me learn how to listen better." I am proud of him for his efforts but even more than that I am frustrated because he is so belligerent and deliberately ignores me and does the opposite of what I ask. Well, he did respond when I told him he lost presents. He is such a huge charmer! He makes everyone fall in love with him with his earnest creative nature. It was fun to spoil him at Christmas and I love to see him happy. I have learned a lot from Jorens school team and I am continually amazed by his awesome teacher. Look what she wrote to me yesterday by email:

"I received a new book -- one I have been longing to read (Counting by 7s) -- I am a super dork for kid-lit. As I started it, I could not stop thinking of Joren. I imagine school does not always feel like a good fit for him, and it is my dream that through this year he finds a way to hold on to all the wonder and curiosity and imagination he possesses, and find ways he can make school work for him, without losing any of who he is. I treasure that vision, and only hope I can be a helpful guide in his journey.What a glorious year lies ahead for all of us!!"

Ahh Christmas...

Christmas was a whole new experience for me this year. I did a lot of things different than in years past. First, Christmas had ALWAYS been about making homemade gifts. I think I always thought I did not have enough money for a decent gift so I worked REALLY hard on homemade gifts to compensate. This year I just spent a boatload of money on everyone and did not make one single thing. Second, Christmas has always been about decorating and making things pretty and festive. I live in a home where I am the only one of 6 people who care a whit about decorations. My boys were really excited to put up the tree but they would have been fine if it did not have its branches spread out, lights on it or a skirt under it. They just wanted a tree. So, I still decorated and fussed but it felt foolish and futile as I did so and I'll admit my heart was not as much in it as usual. Third, Christmas is usually about shopping and braving crowds and stores . I bought 99% of everything online at mostly amazon, my new best friend. There is no other way to go and I don't know how my kids would have any presents this year without The interwebs of love. And 4th, Christmas is usually about snow, but now that I am an Oregander, I am learning to train myself to expect Christmas when I see fog instead. By about dec. 20th, I realized that snow is really not coming but Christmas still is, so I better get ready, ready or not.
So there was no snow, no stores, no visit to Santa, no zoo, no crafts or sewing or homemade cards or even Christmas cards from us at all (that's a whole other story), and no fancy new homemade decorations or kids crafts (I KNOW) or even gingerbread houses (I KNOW!), but it was still Christmas, and it was still busy even though I bet you're wondering what we actually did do, and frankly I am too.
Paul's motto this month has been, "nothing feels better than canceled plans." I think with our 4 littles we both just thought it best to keep it simple. My motto is "Always complicate things".
Paul's second motto is, "Be as lazy as possible without sabotaging Melody's plans." Paul thinks my second motto is: "Do everything I can to keep Paul from ever getting a nap or any time to himself."
So basically, my gift to Paul was to plan nothing. We had a party for Goodskin Dermatology at Andina's, a very fancy Brazilian restaurant downtown. (Paul planned it and I thanked him profusely for not making it at our house!) It was wonderful! We all got to sit at one table in our own room. There were just enough seats and everyone came. We had 21 people. We all went around and introduced our spouses. I got to do a toast to Paul which was a special moment for me to tell him in public how proud I am of him and what he has accomplished. I'll tell you what was a little surreal was to see my young husband sit at the head of this large table full of guests who literally look to him for their daily bread. The symbolism of the moment was not lost on me. He conducted the dinner with dignity and grace and obvious leadership. Our guests were very gracious and grateful and kind. They were so pleased with our gift and bonuses and it was a very fun night.
We also got to go to a Blazers game. Thank you drug reps! I had the best time! My brother Dave got to go which made it way more fun because while Paul was schmoozing with all the docs and reps I got to joke around with Dave. Best brother ever! The Blazers lost at the last second by one point. Huge, huge let down! But the night could not have been more fun. Free babysitter.. Brother Michael.. Also Best Brother ever! No lines, no crowds, box seat, free food! Yes, it was totally the best! Yes, you can be jealous.
We were sick for a lot of the month. I think the kids have coughed for 4 weeks. I did go to the ward Christmas party.. by myself. The sick kids needed an early night to try to get better. My friend Christy went over the top decorating and making everything PERFECT. It was amazing and all I could think was SO MUCH WORK!
Eirik had basketball games every Saturday this month. He improved so much this season. He was so kind to his teammates and went out of his way many times to build team spirit and morale. He had a really good time and we had a fun celebration with pizza and trophies for his team at Round Table Pizza.
He also had belt testing for Tae quon do and got his yellow belt. We went to a really cool Masters Demonstration where his teachers for World Champion Tae Quon Do show off their skills. It was awesome! There were boards flying everywhere!
We went to the annual Aanderud cookie exchange at Pattys house. We took 11 plates of cookies and came home with 11 so we all got a huge variety to pass out. The kids and Paul were all really good sports about caroling as we passed them out.
On the 23rd we started a new tradition of eating Chicken A La King. The chicken is served in bread bowls shaped like crowns for the King of Kings. My good friend Erin Walker introduced it to us and all of my kids loved it. This is definitely a tradition we will keep doing. We spent the candlelit dinner talking about what gifts we will give our Savior this year. This was one of my favorite parts of the year.
Christmas eve was amazing. Ben and Kim hosted. I seriously don't know how they do all they do! They have 5 kids and they had 30 people over for dinner in Christmas eve. It was a gorgeous ham dinner. I signed up for rolls and desert. I made two gorgeous fruit pizzas. They are one of my favorite traditions but every year Paul says, "why do we do these again?" They take a long time and because they took so long my rolls were not looking good.. In fact, they were in danger of not making it at all. I had a really good plan to make my rolls look like crowns. I had a great recipe. I had it all planned but, I will be honest.. I have never been that great at rolls. I think they only turn out 1 out of 5 times I make them
If I'm really honest with myself and so at the last minute I panicked and Paul, the guy who always saves the day, bought rolls at Albertsons. We put them on cookie trays to heat them up when we got there. As Ben was announcing the food he said "melody's homemade rolls" and I was too embarrassed to say anything and as I choked on the truth the party moved on.. I did not correct him! I didn't mean to lie. I did not mean to claim then as my own but I did not pipe up and say, "Thank you Albertsons" and so... that happened. :)
They had 4 tables set with red tablecloths and Christmas crackers and Martinellis. After dinner we went to the "theater room" to watch funny you tube clips. The we stood to sing the Halleluia Chorus. The Nativity followed. I loved Eirik as Joseph, Joren as a shirtless shepherd and Teig as a Wise Man. He told me later he was embarrassed that the big kids were laughing at him. It has to be hard to be the youngest, but he was so cute!!
When Santa came next my kids eyes all lit up like it was the best thing in the whole world. They sat on his lap and the wonder and delight in their eyes was priceless.
Then there were hugs and kisses and more presents to pass out and many tired children to wrap snug in their beds and visions of sugar plums to plant in their heads.
Uncle Dave came to sleep over and to see what Santa would bring. I made the kids sit so i could comb their hair before running down the stairs and you would think I was making them all drink brussels sprouts or something. The torture! The anticipation was wonderful.
The months and months and months of making endless lists and editing and revising them for hours and hours paid off for Eirik. We did not buy him the deer camera to mount to a tree to monitor your yard that he wanted, or the camo face paint, but I think we covered most everything else, and Santa did the rest. Joren said Eirik got more than him (which was not really true) but I told it was true because he lost some presents for being naughty! He has been SO naughty!!!! He loves his bow and arrow though. This year, once again, all Teig really wanted was the candy. He did really like the slot cars though, and so did I! Juni got a beautiful doll from Grandma Law and I got a Blend Tec, exactly what I wanted. Eirik made me two bracelets, bought me a ring and gave me all his turquoise jewels. Joren gave me an amaryllis he planted at school and he wrapped up things from his room for all his family members.
The boys got so many fun things this year. We just spoiled the crap out of them. This is the first year that everything is not from mom2mom sales and we just had a blast finally getting them some awesome toys. We got a glider, a robot, remote control helicopters, bay blades , hex bugs, bike, bows and arrows, ninja swords, dart guns, games, puzzles, books, night light turtles, movies, spy gear- night vision goggles, walkietalkie watches, sky landers.. and a stomp rocket.. Wow, it was fun to see them get so many things they have been begging for for so long! It is great to be able to make their wishes come true. I feel so grateful!
Christmas night for me as a child was sometimes a letdown because when the day is over, it's over and the magic goes away an it's kind of sad. Tonight we watched White Christmas and then Paul and I snuggled with Eirik on the couch and talked in the glow of the Christmas tree about silly things and memories and wishes and then I made Eirik hot chocolate and stayed up with him until he fell asleep on the couch. I think it will be a very special memory for him. I know it will be for me.
Merry Christmas!

Best Buy

Leaving Best Buy with Paul, Joren said, "Dad I might as well just open my head and pull out my brain and throw it away because after that store my mind is blown!"

Assembly time

I just went to an assembly for Eirik and Joren at their school. Eirik diligently held his nice poster and had all his parts of his poem memorized and spoke loud and clear.
Joren pulled his shirt up over his head the whole time his class was doing their part; like a turtle, and when his group stepped forward for their part, he could not see, so he did not step forward. When they were done he sort of walked aimlessly for a minute and then say down appearing oblivious to what was happening around him. Hmmmm....

Sick day:

This morning Eirik got out of school by saying this: "It feels like a thousand tiger claws ripping up my throat. It feels like the upper half of my head is fiery red hot with an ear splitting headache and any sound will make my head practically fall off. My stomach feels like any more food with quickly make me barf and I am going to hurl at any second!"

Joren is 6!

Joren, our sweet, wild red head is already turning 6! Yesterday we took him and the other boys to the Clackamas aquatic center for his birthday. He loves to swim. He invited one friend named Izzy to come with us. I'm glad I was watching him attentively because at his first chance he took off to the deep end of the wave pool alone. I followed right behind him without him seeing me and when he got really deep and started to look worried I was there. He said, "how did you follow me?" I told him "I'm your mom, I'm always here for you." he put his arms around me and said "I love you more than the universe". We enjoyed the waves for a while and then Eirik drug me to the slides. At the bottom of this huge waterslide Joren saw us come down and of course wanted to go next. We told him sadly that he was not tall enough and we had already scoped it out to see if they would be lenient for a birthday boy and they would not. He started sobbing giant alligator tears and saying that it was the worst birthday ever. That was the low point. Dad saved the day by challenging Joren to squirt him with his new spy ring. Dad dodging streams of water was really funny and soon everyone was busting up laughing. We had sundaes and then let Joren open presents. We spoiled him this year.
We decided that starting presents a day or two early is the way to go. One present every couple of hours for two days makes it feel like a TON of presents and gives him time to enjoy them before getting overwhelemed with all of them at once. We had Ben and Kim and the kids and Grandma Pat and Grandpa John, My dad and Davy and Michael all come over for dinner on Sunday to celebrate.  I loved having Laws AND Aanderuds at our house at the same time! It was tons of fun. Joren wanted tacos and a Skylanders cake (which I bought from Safeway.. yes I am that kind of mom now. My first store bought cake!) He loved it and I learned from my recent Godzilla cake that I could learn a thing or two about decorating!  Paul and I had fun picking out presents for him. We bought him a little fish that is a hex fish so it's like a little robot that swims in the water. So cool! He got a wooden box homemade by Davy and Michael. I bet he will have that forever. It was a great birthday.
I love our crazy, wild child with a nonconformist mind. He's a little fireball.

Dinovember!

This month the dinosaurs came to life everynight for 2 weeks.

The first night Joren suggested that we call the police because this was really weird. Eirik said, "I can't believe our dinosaurs really came to life!" Teig hid the dinos under his bed every night to make sure they would not get into any more trouble.  I don't know how it happened, but they must have sneeked into our car with us because when we came out of our hotel in Ontario, ID.. there they were trying to start the car. Then at Grandma and Grandpa's house they were playing in the stream outside their house. They were so mischievous!