Happy Birthday Izzy Bizzy

Happy 6th Birthday Izzy!  We love you so much!!

6 years old!!

And some Oldies!

Volleyball May Be My Sport

... To Watch.

This fall Mikayla wanted to give volleyball a try.  Spencer and I agreed that volleyball would be a really good sport for her because she's tall for her age and crazy strong, so if she could get the coordination part in there she'd be a pretty awesome player!

This past Tuesday night was Youth Night for the High School Volleyball teams.  This meant that all the youth volleyball players got a free ticket to the varsity game.  Mikayla and I went to the game while Spencer finagled Izzy and Connor for the night driving them around for Izzy's gymnastics class.  The game was awesome!  We didn't win, but it was really exciting to watch!  The pep band was there, lots of people in the stands cheering, and although it was a little chilly in the gym - I loved that it was indoors and the seats were fairly comfortable.  I thought, "This is a sport I could really get into sitting in the stands to watch!"  I couldn't play it, but I really liked watching! :o)  She played soccer years ago and that was fine, but being outdoors made it less than comfortable quite often.  I love being outside when it's nice out, but I don't like being stuck outside for extended time when it's too hot/cold/windy/rainy.

Mikayla loved the game too, she was doing lots of shouting and cheering her hometown team on.  It was the first volleyball game she'd ever seen, so it was good for her to see what a real game (wait... match? I don't know) looks like.

Then last night she had her first games, and I finally got a chance to really see her play!  She is a great server!  It was funny how excited everyone in the gym got any time there was more than one volley over the net! Ha! For first year players these girls were great!  Mikayla's team won both of their games against the neighboring town.  To be fair, the ages are different.  Our town groups 3rd and 4th grade together and the other town groups 2nd and 3rd together, so the teams we played against had some 2nd graders, and we have some really tall 4th graders.  But it was still so fun and such an encouragement to the girls to get a couple wins in them right away!

They only played games last night and then will play a couple next week and then they are done with games. It is so fun!  Even Izzy and Connor got into it.  Izzy was anxious to catch anything that came her way in the side lines and throw the ball back in, and Connor was all about the cheering and fist pumping! :o)

After watching a varsity game, and now Mikayla's game, I can definitely say that once I figure out how the scoring and rules work I will definitely enjoy going to volleyball games in the future!

Nap Time Woes

Naptime.

It's the only shot I get at a break in my 10.5 hour day, and when it goes badly, I get crabby.  Crabby Abby is not nearly as pleasant to be around as Happy Abby.

Lately naptime has been, shall we say... rough.  Connor has outgrown his naps, but I still make him because I  haven't outgrown his naps :o) .  So that's rough spot number one.

Then there's the crazy running around that ensues as I'm trying to lay each child down in their nap spots and helping kids to the bathroom, changing diapers, swaddling babies.  They think it's a free-for-all lately, and it only amps them up.  It's only been like this in the last month or so, but I'm tired of it.

So today we did something different...

After lunch was over and sort of cleaned up, I corralled everyone into the living room where we watched about 10 minutes of Signing Time while I changed the toddlers' diapers and helped them try the potty chair, all in the living room so nobody can escape the pre-nap confinement calm-down area.

Then once everyone was changed/pottied, I brought them one by one to bed, starting with the baby.  Once they were in bed (would have done this before laying them down but had to find it) I started a lullaby cd for some background white noise and to act as a sound cue that it is time to sleep.  Now that our noisy air conditioner isn't being used, it's too dang quiet for them to sleep!

So while it still took some time to get a couple of them to fall asleep, it was calm and peacefull and felt much better for all of us.  They are now, all 4 of them, sound asleep, and I'm going to get some birthday invitations done and some things ready to be mailed.  And drink more coffee! :o)