Dempsey and Online

Catch-up Post: Sept

 So Uncle Will dropped in on us for a few days in September, it was a great time for all, really broke up the mundane quarantine life.  Papa and Barb have been VERY helpful with the kids and school.  They love to play all kinds of card games at breaks, and Barb has been giving each of the kids some special assignments of her own design to help them with writing, spelling, etc.  There has been lots of disc golf lately, including an awesome disc golf outing in the mountains for Russell with some friends.  Lastly, we got the kids a set of golf clubs and took them golfing at Ute Creek for the first time. Both boys are naturals and got a lot better as the round went on!  I'm excited to get them better gear and then take them out golfing more.

Ryker Being Ryker

7

Dempsey Snow.

She's such a joy in our world.  
I cannot believe it was 7 years ago that she entered this world!  

A few things I'd love to highlight from this year about Dempsey.

Her emotional intelligence continues to shine through.  She is definitely sensitive to my moods and notices and asks when she sees changes in me.  Some examples:

•  I was tubing in the water with the kids for going on an hour plus, and I was super exhausted.  My arms were tired, but I was determined to hold on because the water was a bit chilly.  Dempsey looked over, while tubing, she said, "Mom are you ok?  Are you having fun?  You aren't saying anything."  I had to assure her that I was still having fun, even though I was quiet.
• Yesterday the kids were fighting every hour on the hour, and I was over it.  Dempsey held my hand and said, "Mom you been stressed today.  Are you stressed out?"  I said, "I do feel stressed out when you kids fight."  She said, "Me too, I'm going to take some deep breaths."  I told her that was an awesome reminder for me too.
  

It's so sweet, and yet I also find myself wanting to make sure that she nurtures this AND that she doesn't feel like she has to constantly fix things.  I think that is part of my story and I don't want her to feel like it needs to be her story too.

Another thing that has been apparent is Dempsey's love for all things animal related.  She loves, loves, loves her stuffies.  It continues to drive Russell nuts that she buys so many stuffies with her own money, and I WAS that child.  Stuffies for days!  She just loves them.  We got her a basket for her bike and she has been able to take her small stuffies on rides and that has made her day.  She also enjoys watching any video that includes animals.  We currently are watching a zoo documentary while I work out downstairs.  Today she said that it was one of her favorite times during the day.  (SWEET GIRL).  She loves Kevin and Sammy, and continues to be Kevin's second master.  Just today we were at a nature area and Dempsey and her friend Ella took off down the path.  Kevin looked up and saw the girls and immediately charged forward to be with them.

Dempsey is a brave girl that likes to do challenges even though she might not want to ever admit it.  She will fall down and say I can do this, get back up and DO IT!  On a normal day she tells me, "I love you Mommy," at the most random times.  It usually is when we are doing something fun, or we are walking/riding somewhere together, or when she just got into bed to cuddle.  Speaking of cuddling....she has really enjoyed me getting up later this past week.  The other day she told me, "Mom, I love when you put your arm around me.  It makes me feel safe."  Melt my heart.  

I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks, as we all are home together working and schooling.  I can't wait to hear her little voice on her webexs and see the work she does in school.  This girl is such a gift for me, and constantly makes me want to be a better mom.

LOVE You Snow.

Mom

Um, Only Read When You are Older (Dempsey)

 Dempsey.  Hey so...remember when you were at my school and private chatting with that boy.  And I asked you what were you doing...and you kept putting hearts on there.  And then I told you that might him feel uncomfortable...and then you sent him a broken heart.  Well....

I might have told your teacher that you figured out the private chat.  

AND then she might have took that feature off for all of you, because she didn't realize that you all figured that out.

AND then I asked you about the boy and you said...."It's so weird, because now I can't chat with him."

Please know that I love you!

Mom

Keeping It Interesting

These past months haven't always been easy.  Sometimes we feel grateful.  Other times we feel trapped.  Often we are exhausted.  Other times we are creative.  There have been ebbs and flows in this Coronavirus time.  A few highlights.

1.  Kids in school:  We had conferences and kids are slaying school.  I feel so darn grateful for this, because I know that this isn't always the case.  The kids struggle on their at home days (sometimes), but I can't blame them.  They are doing awesome at wearing their masks at school.  They all love reading and they sometimes don't quit.  It's the best!  I was able to have both Ryker and Dempsey come to my school at one point this year.  It was so cool to listen to them do their school!  I miss that about not being at home when they are home.  I do feel lucky and LOVE that their grandparents have spent so much time with them during their school time this year.

2. Sports.  All kids were in sports and they will be done this coming weekend.  This is good news, because MAN it makes our weeks busy.  However, it has been wonderful.  Kids are able to be outside, and run around with their friends!  Saturdays were nuts, but it was still really cool to have our kids be so active!  We were all needing a break though:)  I'm so proud that all of our kids have tried a sport and kept working to get better.

3.  Getting out and doing something!  We have tried to support local business by going out to eat, or painting at our favorite spot.  We have frequented our parks and green spaces to engage in a family favorite-TAG!  My PT has tasked me with playing more tag and trusting my knee to cut when I try to keep up with my kids:)  I'm slowly getting better and more competitive.  We've gotten into disc golf and took the boys golf-golfing for the first time!

4. Texas Time!  I was able to escape for a weekend to get some family time in, by myself.  I was able to see my aunties and uncles and cousins for nice lunch!  Then I went and spent the rest of the weekend with my sister and her kids:)  It was so great getting time with them and helping my sis out!  

Things are different, but we are trying to keep it interesting!

Love,

Mom

New Hobbies

Russ started getting the family involved in Disc Golf.  Luckily there is a course right near AJ/Ryker's football practices.  Usually practices are 1 hour long, which is the exact length of time needed to go through this course!  A couple of things.  1.  Russ has learned to give certain family members the floating discs as there is a river that runs through the course.  Let's just say Russ is spot on in his assessment of said family members, and we have learned cool tricks to get the discs out!  2.  Kevin must learn how to retrieve discs that go astray.  3. Russ has the patience of a saint out here-which is both awesome and impressive!

So far AJ seems to show some real promise, which is pretty cool!  I need to work on taking it seriously!  But what a cool hobby to get outside, do some walking, and everyone in the family (including dogs) can enjoy!

Love,
Mom

Flor---shhhh-ida

We got away during our Fall Break.  Should we have?  I don't know.  Did others approve?  Probably not.  Was it responsible?  IDK.  I can tell you that we felt as safe as possible, and it was SO GOOD for our mental health to get away.  We stayed in an AirBnB right next to the ocean!  They also had a huge heated pool, which was a nice break from the sand and waves.  

We had talked about going to Cocoa Beach for awhile.  We wanted to see a rocket launch and also scope around for the potential of having a beach vacation spot!  As we planned this out, we knew there many different ways that this trip could get cancelled.  We also were a smidge bummed to see that there were launches scheduled all around the time we would be there, but nothing when we actually were there.  

We decided to precede on and go!  We all wanted a change of scenery.  The last time I visited the beach I was on crutches and that was....pretty horrible.  So we went...and enjoyed the heck out of the ocean.  Kids were boogie boarding, we built some epic sand castles.  Dempsey learned the power of the ocean as she got slammed down a couple of times.  She learned the lesson of "never turn your back on the sea."  She also would get taken down, and would run to the sand...crying and hollering about how she is never going to go in the ocean again.  Two minutes later...she was back in the water...telling me she could do "hand things".  

Lucky us....we also got to see a LAUNCH, as it got scheduled the week we were to leave! So cool and fun to see something we've only watched on Russell's iphone!  The Falcon 9-SpaceX rocket took off and we could see everything from the beach! This made us even more excited for future launches!  We also got to go to NASA @ Cape Canaveral.  This was such a cool experience, and it was so neat watching AJ run around and absorb everything!  Surprisingly, none of our kids are interested in being astronauts...although I'm questioning my career choice...because dang...what a cool job.

In the end, we wore our masks and were able to avoid any crowds, and were lucky to get away and enjoy the salt water, the sand, and SPACE.

Love,

Momma

Halloween 2020-It Did Happen

Oh Halloween-on a Saturday, with a full-moon, and a pandemic on the rise!  I felt that I wanted to make it extra/extra special, and at the same time was pooped and didn't know if I could do anything.  I'm not trying to sound dramatic...but there is a fine balance of planning things and spending your whole day trying to "wow" your kids-and realizing that often times it doesn't take much for them to love what you are doing!

I/we managed to escape the huge slime craze when it first happened, so I figured that making slime might be a highlight.  GO figure it was!  This is the pictures...of slime making that happened at 9pm on Halloween night!  Woooo-hooooooooooo!

 

The kids did do a mini trick-or-treat around our neighborhood.  I was super impressed by all the neighbors that created a Pandemic 2020 friendly options.  Balloon with candy attached, candy on tables, candle bundled in baggies, and of course a candy chute!


We also had some "Devil"ed eggs with some mummy dogs-all first times for us:)  The kids said that it was a pretty good holiday and they all agreed the slime was one of their favorite things to do!  Wish us luck that it doesn't end up in someone's hair or on the new carpet!

2020 has been a tricky year to be a parent.  Russ and I talked about how it does offer us a chance to celebrate differently, as a family.  Pretty cool.

Love,

Mom