Category: Family news/Updates

Just thought I’d share some pictures from the Farm. Goodness did those kids have fun!  The weather is finally getting a bit warmer, the snow is melting, and now we’re just getting plain rain and not an angry rain/snow/sleet mix.  Yea spring!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did you know that you can use your same old pancakes recipe, pour it onto a jelly pan and bake it at 425 degrees for 10 minutes and have tasty oven baked pancakes without standing at a griddle while certain family members demand hot cakes otherwise they’ll die of hunger?

Yep, we’re getting a bit creative in our household as Mr. Dave is still out of commission with the whole broken leg thing.  Luckily we’ve still had family around to help us out.  Grandma Dara and Papa took the kids up north for part of last week and they all came down on Saturday.  We ended up having a wonderful and relaxing weekend, just hanging around the house.   As the kids didn’t get home till Saturday afternoon Dave and I were able to get 16 meals into the freezer!  Yea freezer cookin’.  On Sunday we all headed to Auburn Hills for cousin Henry’s two year birthday.  The party was held at one of those inflatable bounce house type places, where kids and adults got to enjoy the fun.  Ajax loved it and ran around nonstop.  Noomi took a bit more coaching, but once she started having fun, there was no stopping her either.  All the adults got a good workout as well and it was very nice seeing Dave’s cousins.

This week we’re getting back into our routine, which has been off track for a month now, but understandably so with the move, etc.  Both kids are so tired when they get home it’s ridiculous, as school and learning take a lot of work.  On Wednesday, I took Ajax to his new school and registered him.  He was so cute.  He was a little nervous and shy headed in, but when we were in the library filling out paperwork, he was comfortable enough to explore and look around.  He also took his vision and hearing tests and did very well, passing both.  We won’t know his teacher until late summer and they will also be calling us with his bus schedule!  I cannot believe he’ll be taking the bus in the morning.

Noomi seems to have hit a milestone as her language usage and vocabulary are finally accelerating.  She will freely repeat you and is now saying mama on a regular basis.  She also identifies me as mama, Dave as dada, and Papa as papa (papa is currently her favorite person in the world).  She can also identify Ajax, but has for a while now.

Both kids go in soon for doctor’s appointments. Noomi for a late 18 month check up (I dropped the ball on that one) and Ajax for his 5 year appointment.  Dave also goes in next week for a final xray and determination of whether or not he can start putting weight on his leg, we’re all hoping that it goes well.  Thanks for grandpa Gordy for driving Dave around!  Oh, and we also signed Ajax up for Tball which starts in late April.  I have to pick up his little outfit and apparently practices are held twice per week (crazy eh?).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello there, my apologizes for the lack of updates lately.  To rewind a bit, Dave slipped and broke his leg.  We saw the Orthopedic surgeon at MSU on a Tuesday and the next day, Wednesday (March 4th), Dave was at the hospital having surgery.  Nine pins and one long plate.   I cannot believe that a little slip on the ice could do so much damage.  Incredible.   As Mr. Dave was out of commission with Doctor’s orders to stay off the leg for at least 4 weeks, we were lucky to have family who was able to help us move to the new house so that we were still able to move on March 8th.  On March 9th, my sister, her friend, and I cleaned the old house and turned in keys to the landlord, which was nice as that was one less thing to worry about.  Our Williamston home is now pretty well organized and mostly put away.   The kids seem to enjoy the new house and like that it is only one level.   We are all awaiting warmer weather to explore the area, which seems quite nice.   Dave goes back to the Doctor this Thursday to have his stiches removed, and at his last appointment the Doctor said everything was looking good.   I cannot say how much our families have helped us out over the last few weeks, we are so fortunate that I simply cannot express my appreciation for everything they have done for us.  Thank you.

We had an excellent plan.  As I have mentioned we found a reasonable home to rent in our dream town, with a move date of March 8th, we had the move planned out, we had kids organized, we had family in agreement, all was aligned.  Grandpa Rod was going to come down with the truck for the weekend so that Dave and I could move boxes, while Grandpa got some well deserved kid time.

Then on Wednesday of last week my Great Aunt Norm passed away at the age of 98.  She was an incredible woman, the matriarch of the family before she became ill.  She also held the old family stories and Lebanese recipes that her mother once made.  As hard as I try I have not mastered jutera.  I have never gotten it to taste the same as when Aunt Norm made it.  My grandpa Nader and I even put our heads together one time and tried to make it (my grandpa saying, I think Norma does this…) and it turned out so bad that I don’t think we even ate it.

This was also the first death in the family of someone that Ajax really knows and remembers (as he was too young when my grandpa and Dave’s grandma passed).  As a matter of fact, when the topic of elderly family members comes up, Ajax would always point out that Aunt Norm was the oldest person in our family.  We weren’t too sure how to explain to him that Aunt Norm passed, so we ended up sitting him down and just telling him.  He had one question and that was could he say good bye.  Dave said that he could absolutely say good bye when ever he wanted and Aunt Norm would hear him.  At night he then asked me, how far of car drive was heaven?  I tried to explain that it was up up in the sky and that your spirit flies there when your body gets tired.

So now, instead of moving boxes we changed our plan and Dave and I would go in for the funeral on Saturday.  Ok, sounds good.  On Friday night, however, when Dave was on his way into the house from getting the mail, he slipped on ice on the side walk, flew through the air and landed with his leg pinned underneath him.  We thought it was a bad sprain, so we decided the ER wasn’t necessary.  On Saturday morning, Noomi and I went to the funeral, while Rod and Ajax took Mr. Dave to the Urgent Care where the Doctor confirmed via X ray that Dave broke his lower leg in two places.

Dave is now on crutches with the Doctor’s order to stay off it and keep his leg up with a pending appointment with his family doctor this coming week.   When it all hits the fan, ya know? lol.

Here are some pictures from the weekend.   We busted out the water colors and both kids had fun painting.   Noomi didn’t really get the paint thing, but enjoyed splashing water on the paper then dumping the water on the floor.  Good times.

Noomi loves the bows in her hair and has been insisting on multiple bows all over her head, lol.   Ajax thinks its pretty funny.

 

 

Some fun family updates!

This past Friday was Valentine’s day and each child had a mini-party in their classrooms.  We remembered Valentines day cards for Ajax and he picked out Spiderman ones that each came with a littler ruler.  Ajax and I sat at the table after dinner and wrote them out together.  He was pretty proud.  Noomi opted to bring in jello cups for her party, but I inadvertently bought sugar free jello.

Saturday we packed and cleaned and packed some more.   Then we headed to Brighton to my cousin, Kim’s house for a family dinner.   Ajax and Noomi were the only little ones there, but had so much fun playing with everyone and running wild throughout the house.  Kim’s couches also had these large pillows, dozens of them, enough for Ajax to make a 4 ft mountain of pillows and then leap off the couch onto them.  Noomi of course had to join in and it surprises me how tough she is.   The kids ran so much that they passed out on our hour drive home, though Noomi chatted for about 15 minutes or so, while Ajax passed out almost immediately.

On Sunday we got the keys to our new home in Williamston.  We took over two loads and let the kids explore it.  Ajax picked out his room and both kids were quite excited to actually see the house.  We noticed a few young kids outside playing and the neighborhood seems very family friendly.   On the downside Ajax got his finger snapped in a mousetrap and that took a bit to calm him down.

Tomorrow is President’s day so I’ll be home with both kids while Mr. Dave heads into Dearborn.   I’ll try to get them both outside, but it’s just been so cold this winter that they can’t be out for long.  This winter has set records in the amount of snowfall and low temperature.  When Ajax and I went out to shovel the driveway today I through him up onto the large build up between our driveway and our neighbor’s driveway, which is about 4 ft high and packed solid, so that he could run circles on top of it.  When we trudged into the backyard the snow was up to my knees and I could tell that I wasn’t hitting the ground while walking, but only the densely packed ice/snow that covered the ground.  Ajax followed in my tracks otherwise he would’ve up to his waist, lol.

Pictures are coming, but I was not able to upload them tonight. 🙂

 

This weekend we started packing up as we have less than a month before our move date.   Noomi is oblivious to the hustle, but Ajax is getting a bit more anxious.   We’re hoping to get the majority of items moved over before our move date and so far we’re finding packing to be much more easy without a newborn and rambunctious three year old.

Today grandpa Gordy came over and took Ajax to see the Lego Movie.  Ajax was so excited and sat through the entire show.  As soon as he got home, he immediately told on grandpa and told me all about the candy he got at the movies.  What a stinker.

Well, we’ve been a busy family here.   We finally found a house in Williamston (aka. Small town USA with EXCELLENT schools) and will be moving the second week in March.  We are very excited to transition to Williamston and are hoping that we will love it so much that we will eventually want to buy our next home there.   Ajax is getting a little washy about moving, but his main concern is starting kindergarten in a new school.  It’s understandable, that’s a big change.  We will try to get him into T-ball this summer so that we can hopefully meet some families in the area.

We’re also hoping that we can keep Noomi at the same daycare in East Lansing because we love the teachers and environment, but we’ll have to see how that goes given the distance between my work, Noomi’s school, and then Ajax’s school in Williamston.

So overall, this means we will be packing soon.  No one likes moving, I wish a bunch of elves could come and move us overnight.

One of the things I love about the kids daycare is the little piece of paper I get at the end of each day telling me what they did.  I find it so entertaining that I felt I should share their day today!

Ajax’s day for 01/20/2014- he ate everything and relaxed quietly.  Here are the teacher’s notes- We discussed things we do in the winter.  Ajax said shovel snow.   We planted four different kinds of herbs.  We drew snowflakes in our journals.

Noomi’s day for 01/20/2014- she ate well and napped from 12:05-2 pm.  The teacher’s notes state- We counted to five.  Learned the colors and said the name of a friend wearing the color as we went over them.  Learned the letter “A” and said words that begin with it.  Our circle time story was “I love you because you are you.”    We did a book review.  We fingerprinted a friendship mural.

Too cute!

 

This weekend was fairly quiet to report.  On Saturday my parents and grandma Flo came to visit.  We made pancakes, and Ajax got to play in the snow with grandpa, while my mom and I went grocery shopping.

On Sunday, we took the kids to this small natural history museum on Michigan State’s campus.  The kids loved it and ran almost nonstop.  They also chattered away nonstop about everything.  We tried to remind them to keep their voices in check, but they were pretty excited.  Noomi’s favorite thing were the stairs, while Ajax loved the dinosaur bones.

On a development note – Noomi’s vocabulary is finally expanding.  She is currently referring to all drinks as wawa.  We keep repeating to her WATTTTER, Water.  But she keeps saying – wawa.  Oh well, she is now at least using words to communicate what she wants.

Ajax is also doing well, though he’s been in a bit of a stubborn phase lately and I admit that he’s so quick and sharp, I have to remind myself that he’s only 4.   I hope he someday uses this power for good, lol, because right now he’s pushing poor Mr. Dave and I pretty hard.