shots and the necessary drama

A few months ago we had a fun little visit to the doctor to get everyone up to date on their shots.  It was not without drama as Elise and Lilly fed off of each other's tears, crying about their misfortune for the rest of the evening and into the next day.

Because of this, I didn't tell Lilly the complete truth when we were heading to her follow up.  I mentioned something about drinks at sonic but left out that we would be stopping for shots first.  When we pulled into the parking lot, she refused to get out of the car.  It didn't get much better as she suddenly had to go to the bathroom when the nurse came into our room.  I had my doubts, but she is still having accidents enough that I took her to the bathroom.  After waiting for a few minutes, I asked if she REALLY still needed to go to the bathroom.  Her response?  Yep, just after everyone at the doctor's went home.  Her next approach?  After the first shot, she tried to convince the nurse that she only needed one.  Pretty rational for a four year old.  :)  

So why am I bringing this up a month later?  Yesterday, Lilly said that she wanted to write a letter to the lady that gave her shots.  I refrained from commenting as I wanted to see what was going to happen next.  After some time at the table, I hear her read out her note to Elise.  "Dear Shot Lady, I love you.  I really appreciate you giving me my shots.  Love, Lilly."  Ah, four year olds are so great at forgiveness.  :)

See!  I am back! (and in less than 6 months, which I'm taking as a victory.)    This week has been a busy week, complete with a Memorial Day bbq and s'more roast, a broken arm and a successful (at least I thought so!) mutual activity.  I am hoping that tomorrow is a little breather as Friday starts with the busy again.  I hate the word busy.

Our broken arm was compliments of Elise, again.  It was a reminder that we should not jump on the trampoline on Sundays.  I always remember my mom talking about all of the mistakes she would make in her sewing if she sewed on Sunday and apparently, the same goes for jumping.  Elise made major mistakes in jumping.  :) We don't normally let our kids jump on Sunday and if we ARE on the trampoline, it is as a family just kind of sitting around.  This Sunday some friends stopped by and the kids got restless.  We sent them out for a breather...and we probably shouldn't have.  The up side?  Rachel got to hang along for the doctor visit and enjoy understanding the medical speak from the doctor while I deferred to her for a translation. (after the doctor left, of course!)  And did I mention the cute slings we cranked out?  Elise has two choices, depending on the outfit and her slings come with pockets since she concerned about being short an arm to carry things.  Last night, she loaded up her pocket with little toys that needed to make the trip upstairs.

Do I hate my trampoline for breaking Elise's arm?  Nope.  Maybe I would if a bone had been sticking out of her arm.  Or if it required some horrible surgery?  But as it is, I view this whole broken bone part of childhood to be pretty normal.  We didn't get mad at our couch when she broke her other arm while monkeying around on it.  AND I feel like our trampoline provides the kids countless hours of fun and exercise.  Six years without an injury isn't bad!  Next week we get to go in for a more permanent cast, which I am sure will lead to countless hours of whining from Elise.  We'll just have to remind her that she DOES get to wear a pretty snazzy sling.  I'm sure it will make the itching all better.  

I'm grateful for a broken bone over appendicitis. (which my friend's boy had surgery for)  And I'm grateful for a cute little Lilly that has had a laundry list of injuries in the last 3 days in an effort to compete for attention.  It is borderline cute/obnoxious.

As you can tell from my serious lack of blogging, I just haven't been feeling the drive to blog.  I have been listening to just a little bit of nagging (ok, a whole heck of a lot of nagging) from my oldest daughter with her threatening to take over my blog.  So here is my feeble attempt to get blogging again.  We'll see how it goes, right?

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day in Oregon.  We were in the high seventies and the sun was a shining.  With our morning already being sucked up by piano (I love piano, but we do spend at least 4 hours there each Monday), we declared today to be a sun day and cancelled school.  We got the Woodwards to join us for a trip to the beach where it was just as beautiful, with just a little bit of wind.
Lilly is apparently a little bit scared of waves still so she spent most of her time in the sand.  If a wave was within 20 feet of her, she was running to the rocks.  It was a little ironic because I think she was more likely to get hurt on the rocks than by 1/2 inch of water.  We have our favorite beaches in the area but the big deciding factor between the two is whether or not we want to visit Tillamook Cheese Factory for cheese and ice cream.  Normally, the call for ice cream wins and we are headed south.   The beach that we went to today has a little cave we always have to walk through at some point.  As much as Lilly was petrified of the tiny waves, she had no problem walking through this rocky and DARK cave.  Silly girl.
And the pictures? I left my camera at home.  I have 2 rather mediocre pictures off of my cell phone.  Sorry. :(

And there you have it.  My biannual post to my blog.  Did I tell that my last post wasn't from me?  It was Rachel hijacking my blog.  I am glad I have a 14 year old that can be so on top of things.  She really does keep me in check. (tomorrow I'll tell you all about her dinners that she has been cooking for us!)

Kangling Year in Review

{Chloe (9), Hannah (8), Rachel (13), Lilly (3), Autumn (11), and Elise (5)}

This year has been a very eventful one for the Kanglings full of crazy trips and sport seasons.

So here is the girls' year in review:

Rachel: Rachel lives for Starfish and is going back in February to spend a month there with her grandma. She played forward this year in soccer and had a lot of fun. She also played Unified Sports this year for soccer and basketball and really enjoyed that. Her biggest accomplishment this year was completing her Personal Progress award for church (similar to the eagle scout).

Autumn: Autumn got to go to South Korea this year and really enjoyed it. She is progressing in photography and takes amazing pictures (lots of them). She played defense in soccer and had a fun year with her team (your worst nightmares). She is still the comedian of the family and always makes us laugh. She loves reading and when she has a book you won't be seeing her until she finishes the whole thing. She also found a recent love for Shakespeare.

Chloe: Chloe plays the piano like crazy and is now playing hymns and primary songs. We constantly find her picking out songs from all of Rachel's books. She played soccer this year with Chris as her coach. She played forward and was one of the top scorers on her team. Chloe's been doing a lot of sewing and knitting and made a lot of cute things to put in fair this year.

Hannah: Hannah turned 8 this year and was baptized. She still loves horses and has been reading books about them like crazy. We've found her reading out of a horse encyclopedia and she knows about every type of horse there is. :) She started book 2 in piano this year. She had a fun soccer season and was her team's goalie. When schedules didn't conflict she played for Chris' team.

Elise: Elise believes she is the queen of the family. She loves making pies with her "pie maker (Rachel)". She started reading this year and always is excited when she can pick out a word. She's learning piano really quickly now and is learning songs every week. She loves posing for the camera and listening to her sisters read aloud classics to her. (a Kangling first)

Lilly: Lilly is our cuddle-bug and loves to give hugs and kisses. She loves Hello Kitty and is always pretending to be a little kitty and goes around on her hands and knees, meowing. She loves when people read her books and always comes to you with a pile of about 10 books at a time and has to have you read them all, unless you can distract her.

Lilly was being a little silly during our family pictures this year

and in every picture she was making a face similar to this.

tooth fairy shenanigans and more

Elise, our wimpiest Kangling that takes after her mother, lost her first tooth today with minimal drama. (we have been warning her for a week that it will bleed and that she doesn't need to cry about it.) I can't wait for her to lose a few more teeth as she has had the most cavities of all of our girls. I like to blame it on Chris' stroke, her sneaky nature and on the lack of a pantry door lock. (which we did end up purchasing eventually.) Anyway, I would love for those teeth to fall out and for us to get a new start on her mouth. And typing this lovely blog post has reminded me that I better go off and do my motherly tooth fairy duties. Our family hasn't required a visit from the tooth fairy for a while so I suspect that my eldest daughter might be out of practice when it comes to covering my rear. You know the routine. Mom forgets, daughter distracts tooth fairy client, daughter fills in for the oh so sloppy and forgetful tooth fairy, mom wakes up.

Other exciting family news? Our banana is getting baptized this weekend. It got moved up to October from November, which made us all extra happy. Hannah has been counting down for so long that it was a fun bonus to have it come even sooner. The only bad part of this rescheduling was that my mom had a not so lovely surgery last week. This not only prevented her from making the traditional baptism dress, but it also might prevent her from coming. We are hoping that she can make it, but we also don't want her put at any risks for blood clots and what not just to come down. We're excited to have lots of family join us (Mike and his fabulous new wife are coming, along with Beth and James!) but we're pretty disappointed that Lia isn't hauling all 6 kids cross country for the big day. :) Just kidding, Lia. But we are sad that she lives too far away to come to our little family gatherings anymore. Changes stink. It will still be a lovely day, just a little quieter. (in a sad way, Lia!!)

Side note: our Bishop brought this picture to our attention...doesn't it look a lot like our Hannah, complete with personality?

conference, oh how I love thee.

Today was day 1 of Conference weekend and I find myself filled with gratitude for the opportunity to listen our prophet and apostles. It was a little tricky making it all work, with 4 soccer players and 2 rather fidgety littles but WE DID IT. It included watching conference at a neighboring stake center so we could get each soccer player to watch one session and much of the thanks goes to our crock pot that cooked up a yummy stew while we were being fed spiritually. (and then lunch was waiting for our break between sessions.)

My notes are still a little scribbled as I wait for the transcripts to be released. (I just can't write fast enough, so I have lots to fill in here and there.) Here are some quotes/thoughts that I just loved:

Richard G. Scott:

scriptures are like packets of light that illuminate our life

to memorize a scripture is to forge a friendship

Barbara Thompson:

Remember to first inquire of the Lord (Nephi)

I didn't keep my testimony through those times-my testimony kept me! (pioneer)

the spirit of revelation will illuminate and enlarge your soul

Jose Alonso:

analogy of lost son (sheep): they didn't need a planning meeting to find him and the son didn't even know that he was lost

Christ's love is for all but he never loses sight of the one.

"The Lord expects our thinking. He expects our action. He expects our labors. He expects our testimonies. He expects our devotion." -Thomas S. Monson

Let us do the right thing, at the right time without delay.

Boyd K. Packer (so perfect for our youth!)

Young people are being raised in enemy territory

(His whole talk was wonderful, but full of long quotes that I didn't get completely enough to put on here.)

Dieter F. Uchtdorf (individual worth, in a nutshell)

Compared to God we are nothing, but to Him we are everything.

The Lord doesn't care if we spend our days working in Marble Halls or stabled stalls

The Lord uses a scale very different to the world's to measure the worth of souls

David Bednar:

All about family history for the youth

It is no coincidence that FamilySearch and other tools have come forth at a time when young people are so familiar with a wide range of information and communication technologies. Your fingers have been trained to text and tweet to accelerate and advance the work of the Lord — not just to communicate quickly with your friends. The skills and aptitude evident among many young people today are a preparation to contribute to the work of salvation.

(I just found it to be such an a-ha moment. Of course the youth have been prepared to do family history. Every time I attempt to get help at a family history center, I find myself frustrated that very well meaning and family history saavy workers can't help me because their technology skills are about 10 years behind. Of course the youth are the answer!)

Neil A. Anderson:

Where once the standards of the Church and the standards of society were mostly compatible, now there is a wide chasm between us, and it’s growing ever wider. (Thomas S. Monson)

Motherhood is not a hobby. It is a calling. It isn't something you make time for...It is what God gave you time for.

(LOVED this talk. It summed up my feelings on the matter pretty well. Amen, Elder Anderson....then again I felt that way with every single talk that was given today. Wow. Such a wonderful day.)

Ok...I'm too tired to go on. I've gotta get some shut eye before tomorrow as we are a little spoiled over here with our normal 1 pm church time. I will try to finish this tomorrow, but as the joke goes in our science class (in reference to experiments that involve me going to the store to purchase necessary items) that means never. The whole point of this post? I *love* conference. Hey. Did I tell you how much I love conference? (And that I saw Chloe write across the top of her notes "I love conference!"?? How cute is that?)

our school year and its delayed start

Our big bang of a start to our school year is kind of...nonexistant. (in a good way.) I had a rather silly goal of starting school this past Tuesday while all of the local kids didn't start school until Thursday. I figured it would make up for us taking next week off to play at Disneyland. The problems with this plan?

•I still am waiting for a few books to show up in the mail.

•My house was a mess.

•We need to pack for said trip.

•I haven't even printed up the girls' schedules

The girls humored me. They get an a+ for effort, but my heart just wasn't in it. There was too much to do. So, like any mom who needs a little bit of permission to be mediocre, I asked Chris to tell me to wait to start school. Like a good husband, he did. Like a tricky mom, I waited to tell the kids until Wednesday around 9. (which resulted in a few more subjects being done. Ha.) Instead of school, we cleaned. I think they would have preferred school, but it feels good to have a clean(er) house. School year delayed. Disneyland, here we come. Lilly is excited to ride every ride except for the "roller coaster with the scary monster" and is pretty sure that the princesses are waiting for her. Elise is tall enough to ride just about every ride and plans on doing just that. btw: Disneyland has a great discounts for groups over 10. It is so great that it is worth doing even if you have a couple short of 10.