February 2020 Happenings

The month of February started off rough. Reed came home from school sick and within 24 hours the rest of us were ill as well. This virus lasted days, we all had intense chills, a fever that kept coming and going, and after a few days started having a cough and sinus congestion. At one point Jon had five blankets piled on top of him and was still shivering. Reed's school was hit hard with a lot of kids out for a full week of school, one of his classmates even ended up in the hospital.

We were supposed to head to Avila for an early Birthday weekend for Pepe but the four of us were still recovering. I ended up taking to Kieran to the doctor and finding out he had an ear infection and strep throat so we spent an extra night at home and then tried to enjoy some family time the remainder of the weekend. We had a nice Italian dinner, played at the beach, and tried to enjoy some nice weather after been locked inside all week.

For Valentine's Day Kieran insisted on giving out grapes to all of his classmates. It was pretty cute how confident he was that everyone would love the grapes! Reed's class had a party that I was able to attend and the kids were so excited to receive little tokens from each other.

For Pepe's actual Birthday he made Sunday dinner for everyone and introduced Kieran to the wonderful world of cheesecake - he's hooked!

At the end of the month Jon was out of town for a conference so there was lots of Mom time for the boys. One of our friends from high school was in town and so we went to C's house to hangout. Of course with the kids, this at some point turned into a dance party and Reed and Ben's daughter, Rowan, tore up the dance floor. I gave in and let the boys have a slumber party in our bed, watched Lyla (and Eden and Clara's) softball game, and went out to frozen yogurt. We were excited to have Jon get home but we did make the most of his time out of town.

Other highlights of the month included attending an alumni waterpolo fundraiser for Coach Gross (Heidi's Dad) who is battling Leukemia. The attendance at the game was really great and it was fun seeing so many people that I hadn't seen in years and helping raise money for such a great cause. We also went to Cruz's 1st Birthday party, Kieran decided he would start packing his own lunch, K also made a pancake that looked like me - featuring a face poked with holes that represented my wrinkles, and I attended a Women in Ag event with C and our co-worker Jennifer put on by Western Grower's Association.

January 2020 Happenings

The new year started out busy we made a trip to the coast and got to see some of my college friends (I failed to take any pictures) and we met up with Clint and his family. The boys had a great time hiking and playing together and Kieran still talks about the potatoes Clint made for dinner.

The following weekend Jon and I went to LA with our friend Natalie to see Jason Isbell in concert. We met up with Natalie's sister for dinner and were seated right next to Sting. We were 99% sure it was Sting and then when we were leaving the concert we saw a billboard advertising him performing in a play the next week. The concert was great but Jon woke up sick the next morning and so instead of having a nice leisurely morning we headed for home, I started feeling worse and worse as I drove and by the time we got home we were both feeling miserable.

The big news for the month was that we bought a new house. Most of the balance of the month was spent figuring out remodel plans so we didn't have a lot of time for much else. There was lots of hanging out at home, reading books, playing games, and watching Star Wars movies. Kieran and I also got to take Jeffrey to school a couple of days to help Erin out when Mikael was out of town. Those two boys are so cute together and would chat non-stop the whole time they were together.

December 2019 Happenings

No surprise to anyone December was filled with activities leading up to Christmas. Some of the Dads went away for the weekend so C organized a gingerbread house night with the ladies and kiddos. It was a lot of chaos but also lots of fun. We also discovered how much you can tell about a child from the way they build their gingerbread house! The next night was the annual Santa Lucia Parade in Kingsburg and the boys and I camped out with the Nonna, Pepe, Zach, and the Rodriguez family to watch all of the fun floats. C and some of our other friends spent a ton of time putting together the Kindergarten float and it turned out so well! I was a little sad Kieran didn't want to ride on the float but was happy we got to sit and watch everything go by.

 

Of course the holidays bring school and music class recitals and parties. Kieran and Lyla performed in their Kindergarten's holiday concert and then we got to go back to the classroom and receive gifts from the kids and make gingerbread houses. A few days later was the boys' keyboard recitals. We were out of town when they set the times and Reed and Kieran ended up performing in back to back recitals instead of in the same one like we normally try to schedule. They both did really well but three hours of listening to four to ten year olds sing and play keyboard is quite long! Later in the week was Reed's schoolwide Christmas Concert. The theme was Christmas Around the World and each class sang a song in a different language. The last day of school before break Reed's class had a holiday party and I was able to attend and put faces to so many of the names I'd been hearing about since he switched schools. They had a photo booth, games, and a ton of fun!

As has become our tradition we celebrated Nonna's birthday a little early by going to Pajama Train. It is more fun every year with the boys getting so excited to ride the train and less likely to have meltdowns or wander off. It is just such a quaint, small town event - carolers, hot chocolate, tons of Christmas lights, and a limited number of people. We just love it!

We had lots of other fun sprinkled into the month - the 2nd annual window decorating contest at HMC (these were my favorites - I did the Home Alone Window), the boys had a slumber party at Lyla and Zach's, they also decided to summons our Elf Gus back by building a Christmas tree out of Hotwheels, HMC joined forces with a couple other local agriculture companies to open a free clinic for our employees, and we celebrated Connor's 7th Birthday.

To end the year we had a New Year's Eve party at our house. Our group of friends has so many kids now, get togethers are so big, but they are also a lot of fun with the kids all so close in age. Reed was devastated he fell asleep before the ball dropped and woke up sobbing on New Year's Day.