My Baby Daddy

(playing Wii at a work party)

I must say that I didn't do enough to make Father's Day special for my man, so I thought I'd give him a little shout out here on the blog. We were out of most breakfast foods this morning so he had a breakfast of leftover pizza, and then we went to my parent's house for dinner where he had to grill the steaks. So there wasn't much pampering going on for him, it was more like a normal day. We did get him a gift card to Cabela's because that is now his favorite place to take the kids when I am out working. (And because he wanted a scope for his rifle, but when I asked the kids if that's what we should get him, Kendall said, "No, he might shoot us with bullets." I'm still laughing about that one.)

Joey's a pretty quiet guy most of the time, so I don't think a lot of people know his true personality. He is super duper smart. And I like to think that I'm smart, but he is constantly surprising me with how many things he knows about. We have fun together for sure, but we also really enjoy just having some quiet hanging out on the couch time. He loves to get hyper with the kids and play rough, which they don't really get from me so they definitely have fun with dad. He has also never been afraid to change a diaper, scrub the shower, or cook a meal. (In fact, he probably does all of those things better than I do! I thank my mother in law for that.)

So Happy Father's Day, I love ya.

And even though my dad has never looked at my blog, although I wrote down the address for him today, I'm sooooo grateful he's still with us this Father's Day. Having gone through so many surgeries the last few months and so many close calls really makes a girl appreciate her dad even more. Thankfully he's doing really well now!

Fond Farewell

Denial. That's where I've been these past few months. I kept hoping that if I didn't acknowledge the fact that Tonya was moving, it wouldn't actually happen. I finally had to overcome my denial and so today I said a sad goodbye to a dear friend. Actually, I said the sad goodbye yesterday. Then I said a happy goodbye today. Then I felt like crawling up in a little ball and sobbing. Then I ate some chocolate.

You know the kind of friend who you talk to every day and hang out for no reason at all, and it's always fun no matter what? The kind of friend who makes you want to be a better person, but loves you even when you're not. Someone you can call late at night without worrying about how late it actually is. A friend that you can call at the drop of the hat for babysitting, and whose kids you love so much that you never worry about who owes the other one more babysitting, because it doesn't matter and it all evens out in the end, and you'd do it for them a million times even if they never could repay the favor. You know that kind of friend?

That's the kind of friendship we have. And while I'm going to miss the every day interaction, and the laughing at ourselves, and the many, many trips to the park, I'm so grateful for the opportunity I had to share a little part of my life with this amazing lady.

Of course we'll miss ALL of the Shallenbergers. I know there are some teenagers who have had the course of their lives forever changed because of Rob's influence. And Robbie is such a fun little character, so full of life and adventure. Little Lana is one of the few babies that has ever given me more baby cravings with her beautiful smile and sweet nature. And of course I don't know who will protect Kendall and tell other kids off when Bella is not around to do it. There's nowhere Kendall would rather be than with Bella.

So to Tonya, I say thank you for all you've taught me through your example, all the fun times, the presidency meetings that seemed more like a party, and for always being there. And thanks for reminding me of the value of friendship--I haven't taken the time lately to let some of my friends know how much they mean to me, but you've reminded me that it's worth the effort to have good friends.

I'll miss you guys. You rock.

A Great Weekend . . .

Joey and Noah went on the Father and Son's Outing from Thursday-Saturday, (where apparently my foil dinners were the envy of the camp--who knew?!)

so imagine my surprise when the doorbell rang Friday morning and these

were delivered to my door. It actually made me tear up when I read the sweet card from Joey and the kids. You have to understand that getting flowers from my husband is a rare occasion. (He gives a great back rub, but is not great in the gift department. Most of the time, I'd rather have the back rub and pick out my own gifts anyway.) Apparently my Noah has been urging Daddy to get me flowers for weeks now. Haven't I trained him well?

Friday night we celebrated Hannah's birthday with a few friends by going to Dramagenics, a new family-friendly improv club. It is just starting up, so our group of 6 made up about half the audience, but it was a really fun time. The girls loved it, and some of them even got to go on stage and participate. They all got t-shirts too. It would be a fun date night or even night out with the family. (They also had buy one, get one free coupons in the Val-pak mailer a few weeks ago!). The birthday party turned into an unplanned slumber party where I went to bed and the girls stayed up way too late, which I suppose is the way slumber parties are supposed to be. We've found it's the perfect opportunity to do this when the boys are out of the house!

Sunday morning I got to sleep in while Joey made breakfast. Of course we ended up being late for church because of it, but it was worth it. He's rarely home before church because he has so many meetings, but it seems like whenever he is home we are late. I'm not blaming it on him, it's just that I get lazy and think I have more time since he's here. At church, my kids did the traditional Mother's Day singing with the Primary, and it was the last time all of my kids will be in Primary together. Makes me a little sad. My kids also showered me with fun homemade gifts, but I forgot to wear my "Super Mom: Hero of the Universe" button to church.

After church, we enjoyed a nice dinner with my family and Noah finally lost that tooth. Then he literally lost the tooth. Lucky for him, we have some good connections with the tooth fairy and she came anyway.

(Hi Randi, I know you're stalking my blog!)

My Sweet Boy

Noah has big news: a loose tooth. He has been waiting . . . and waiting . . . and waiting to have a loose tooth ever since he started kindergarten and saw other kids losing teeth. He noticed it was loose on Saturday, and by Sunday morning he wanted it pulled out with pliers (his friend Robbie's preferred method). We explained that it has to be much looser first, or it would hurt. So he will wiggle and wait.

A funny conversation we had on Saturday.

Background: The kids have been playing with a silver "rope" type chain necklace they found in my room, it was actually a gag gift. Noah put it on Saturday just before leaving for the aforementioned birthday party.

Me: Take that necklace off, you're not wearing it to the party.

Noah: Awww, I like it mom.

Me: It makes you look like a gangster.

Noah: I am a gangster.

Me (trying not to laugh): Do you know what a gangster is?

Noah: Someone who plays jokes on people.

Me: No, that's a jokester.

Noah: Then what's a gangster?

Me: A person who does bad things, even kills people sometimes. (That was the best I could come up with).

Noah: Oh, okay. (Takes off necklace).

Now I just hope that he doesn't see someone with a necklace like that and call them a gangster. It's so hard sometimes to teach your kids about the bad things in the world without giving them too much information.

Remember These?

Kendall was hanging out on the couch watching TV this morning and I told her that she needed to turn off the TV and play with toys for awhile. She didn't like that idea and said that she wanted to watch TV all day. I told her I'd give her a little while and then she was going to turn it off. About 5 minutes later she came to me and said, "Mommy, I will play with a toy. But I want to play with YOU." I need to be reminded to play with her sometimes, I get so busy doing things and she can be good at entertaining herself. So then she said she wanted a game, so I let her pick something out of our ridiculously full game closet. I almost forgot that we even had a Lite-Brite, it must have been about 5 years since we've used it. It was one of my favorite toys as a kid. We had a lot of fun making this hot air balloon, even though she lost interest about halfway through and wanted me to finish it. We will definitely be playing with this more often. Noah will love it, and Hannah will probably even still play with it.

Here's another fun fact about Kendall: she has an unusually good sense of direction. It started out that she always wanted to go a certain way when we were leaving the house or coming home, and she would get really upset with me if I went a different way. The she started really recognizing the way to familiar places, even if she didn't know where we were going ("This is the way to Target!"). On Saturday, we were taking Noah to a birthday party and while we were standing in the house she asked, "Which way is Jakob's house?" I pointed east. We got in the car, wound our way out of the neighborhood and were then going east for about a mile. I had to turn south for a little bit before going east again, and when I turned, she said, "Mom, you said the party was that way (pointing east)." How could she remember that from inside the house, after all those different turns? It might have been a fluke, but she does stuff like that all the time. At least it could come in handy if we ever get lost!

I love my sweet Kendall! She's definitely the "baby" of the family. Everyone adores her and she almost always gets what she wants. Our biggest challenge with her right now is that she will not stay out of the pantry. We even have one of those locks that flips over at the top of the door, and she climbs right up on the counter and opens it. She has no fear and doesn't care how many times she gets in trouble. So we found a different lock that you can put a padlock through, and we're probably going to buy it. It's pathetic, but we have a padlock that we put on the refrigerator too!

Arg! Can't get spaces in between my paragraphs again!

Spelling Bee Update

So on March 29th, Hannah competed in the AZ State Spelling Bee at ASU. Because of the crazy month we've had, I hardly had any time to help her study, so I was not getting my hopes up too much for her. Of course, she surprised me and won 5th place with hardly any studying! The top five winners all received trophies, and she also won a savings bond and an Amazon.com gift card. I'll update later with the words she spelled, I don't have it in front of me. I know that the word she missed was tatami, she spelled it tatimi. She says she knew the correct spelling and even in her mind thought she spelled it correctly. We're so happy that she's done so well in the spelling bees this year. Great job Hannah! (The photo is right before the spelling bee, do you think she was nervous?)

I promise that my next posts will be about Noah and Kendall. Poor things, they've been very neglected on this blog!

By the way, Hannah was mentioned in the Surprise Today, a local newspaper, and also online in this article:
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/mailstory-clickthru/232029.php

The spelling bee will air on PBS locally on Sunday, April 13th at 5 pm and also on Wednesday, April 16th at 11 pm. Check it out!

It's Been Awhile

Wow, apparently I'm not a very faithful blogger . . . although I'll say that we've had just a few things going on lately and blogging has not been at the top of the list!

First, an update on my dad. He's home now and doing much better. I'll try to summarize: he had some complications after the bypass surgery where the wiring that holds the ribs and sternum back together completely ripped apart, thus shredding the bone and causing the sternum to be completely destroyed. So he had to have another surgery to fix that, but he hadn't been off blood thinners long enough, so they started the surgery and then had to close him back up because the risk of bleeding was too great. At that point we were told that his condition was life threatening and that he had to be kept sedated and intibated until it was safe to do the surgery again, which ended up being 4 days later. We were called to the hospital at one point and told that he was critical and unstable and we were given the impression that he might not make it. I had to get my kids ready and take them to school without letting on that I may be going to the hospital to say goodbye to my dad. I was trying to prepare myself for the worst, but things stabilized and thankfully we didn't have to face that. They were able to do the third surgery on March 29th and it was successful. So now he's home and recovering and getting back to his usual self, minus a sternum. We're so grateful for everyone who did things for our family during this stressful time. We are so blessed.