Field trip

Last week was crazy, probably one of the craziest since we've been married.  I was in training all week, so both Shawn and I had to work full-time.  Once all my training is done my shifts will be flexible and only part-time, but for now it's crazy with two working parents, trying to shuffle three kids around from school, dance, extracurricular activities, etc.  I'm not sure how full-time working moms do it, it's hard work.

So, since we survived last week, we wanted to celebrate.  We decided to go on a fun weekend trip to Chicago.  The kids called it our "Family Fun Field Trip" and I really liked that name so it stuck and I definetly think we need to have more "Family Fun Field Trips."

We got an awesome deal on a nice upscale hotel downtown in Chicago, the Raffaello, right by the John Hancock Building.  I didn't want to worry about bringing my nice camera, so all pics are taken with my trusty point and shoot.  Sometimes it is so much easier to bring on trips like this, but I'm always sad because I don't get the kind of pictures I'm used to.  But the important part is that the trip is document!

Anyone who knows us well knows that my boys (including the one I'm married to) are HUGE Lego fans.  Chicago has a Legoland Discovery Center and I thought that would be fun.  We spent Saturday morning at Legoland building Lego's, learning how they are made, playing games, and going on rides.  There was even a fun 4D movie that we got to watch.

Later that day we went and saw Gnomeo and Juliet, which was cute, had dinner at a nice restaurant and stayed up late eating cheesecake and telling stories.

We also stopped by the American Girl Store.  Liv was beyond excited.  The store was amazing and we might just have to go back someday and get Liv a doll.

We had to cut our trip a little short and head home early because of crazy winter weather storm advisories, but it definetly was a successful "Family Fun Field Trip."

Valentines and Mr. Mom

I did something for Valentines Day that I haven't done is over 7 years.  I wish I could say I went on an exotic cruise with my sweetheart, or even a nice dinner without the kids, but I can not.  What I did do was work.  Yes, after almost 8 years of staying home with the kids I have rejoined the working world.  This is a decision Shawn and I have been debating for a while now and an opportunity came my way and it just felt right.
So we did it!

Some of you know that I used to work for the State Department in Utah as social worker.  I really enjoyed that and wanted to pursue it again.  I have been hired to work as a Counselor at a residential treatment center for adults with OCD, anxiety problems, and eating disorders.  It should be fun and challenging, but right now I am feeling a little rusty.

Being a mom is definetly still my number one roll and my boss is a working mom as well and seems very open to working with me around my hubby and kids schedule.  This week I have been doing some training so Shawn has been both mom and dad.  It has been hard for me being away from home, but I'm so thankful for a supportive husband.  Seriously, Shawn has stepped up and done amazing.  He even put Liv's hair in a pony tail this morning :) I'm one proud wife!

On a side note my photography services are still available.  Photography is definetly more of a fun/creative outlet for me and I still want to pursue it so I will continue to do sessions when requested.

Other than working, we did have a great Valentines day.  We enjoyed lots of fun and love!

 
 

the boys will never know

A few minutes after putting the kids to bed last night I caught Liv trying to sneak back into my room.  She quietly climbed on my bed and got under the covers.

 "shhh, the boys will never know" she said.

Sometimes when Shawn is gone working at night I'll let one of the kids sleep with me, but I try really hard not to since they usually end up kicking me all night.  But tonight when Liv smiled up at me I couldn't resist.  

 I told her I needed to run and brush my teeth and then I would be right back.  She smiled, she knew I wasn't going to kick her out.  As soon as I got back into my bedroom ready to talk and hang out with my sweet Liv I found this..

She fell fast asleep in under 1 minute.  But don't let this peaceful sleeping picture fool you, she did kick and punch me all night.  It will be a while before I fall for her tricks again. 

Go Pack Go

I've always been a Packer fan, but it was fun to actually be living in Packer territory when they won the Superbowl.  Very crazy around here, lots of screaming, horns honking, and fireworks after the game.  I did make the mistake to go to the store the day before.  I ended up parking a block away, and was grossed out by the dyed green bread in the bakery (I'm not into dyed food, it looks nasty).

Other news around the Reese home......

We are getting ready and excited for Valentines Day. Decorations are up and treats are being devoured.  Our kitchen had a "heart attack" recently.  It was really fun having everyone write things they love about each other.  I hope to continue this tradition and leave the hearts up all month long and continue to add to them until our whole kitchen is covered.

My youngest brother is in High School.  Working hard I'm sure, with all the difficult classes, like pottery and stuff like that :)  Matt's a great uncle and the kids love him.  He actually really is good at pottery and made the kids some cups.  Even though I'm pretty sure my 18 year old brother has better things to do than read my blog, I wanted to give him a shout out and say thanks!! Love you Matt (ps. don't be stupid)

Liv had her first dentist appointment, she was so brave.

But she is also so naughty.  While sweeping the floors after dinner last night I found a chunk of beautiful golden curls.  Immediately I ran to Liv and checked her head.  Yep, she lopped of a few curls from the back of her hair.  She must be destined to be a beautician.  This is probably the fifth time she's given herself a haircut.

I just checked the mail and this brochure was in it.

I think we definetly should go to this one, don't you think??

February Family Dinner

For this months family dinner I wanted to do something from a different country.  With Chinese New Year this past week I thought it would be a great idea to learn more about China.

Earlier in the week I checked out some books from the library about the Chinese culture and had the kids read the books and do a little report.  Later they got to give their report to the family so that we could all learn more.

Ethan reported on the Forbidden City
Cole reported on Chinese New Year
Liv (with mom's help) reported on the Great Wall of China.

I was even lucky enough to find a video showing some of this amazing city.  Hopefully some day we can take the family to China, but for now this was a good introduction.

We cook a lot of asian food around our house, it's one of our favorite types of food.  Here is the menu:

Appetizer......Egg Rolls with sweet chili dipping sauce
Main Course......Kung Pow Chicken and Rice
Side Dish.........Vegetable Lo Mein
Dessert.......Fortune Cookies
Drink..........Chinese Firebolt (coke + lime + grenadine syrup)

We learned how to say "please" and "thank you" in chinese, the kids attempted to eat with chopsticks for their first time, and we made our own dragons and had a parade.

One of the funnest parts was learning about what animal sign represented each child, and what was funny is that some of the traits definetly fit them.  Below I listed each animal with a few of the traits that fit each person.

Shawn-Horse (quick-witted, hard-worker, dislikes idleness, intelligent)
Jenn-Horse (cheerful, talkative, head strong, independent)
Ethan-Sheep (gentle, artistic, imaginative, creative, worrier, sensitive)
Cole-Rooster (hard-working, brave, independent, adventurous, not afraid to speak their minds)
Liv-Boar (happy, good-natured, shy, make good friends, sociable, determined)

The kids loved our Chinese dinner.  They loved reading their fortunes in the fortune cookies and we are definetly looking forward to next months family dinner.

Snow Day

Today is our first official "snow day".  We got hammered by the big storm that's been all over the news.  School was cancelled, dance was cancelled, I even had an interview that was cancelled and everyone was put on emergency alert status and told to go home and stay inside.

We woke up this morning to several feet of snow.  I went out back to get the snow shovel, but I couldn't even open the door.  Snow was piled all the way up and it wasn't budging.  So I went out the front door, which wasn't much better, but eventually I got out.  I tried to walk down our front steps, but couldn't seen them so I basically just fell down them.  I attempted to walk over to the street, but it really was more of a crawl.  Snow was up around my waist and when I finally got to the road I rolled over the snow bank into the road.  The road had been partially plowed by tractors so I was able to walk down to the backside of our house to get a shovel.  After shoveling for about 30 minutes and realizing we were getting nowhere, I see our wonderful neighbor coming over with his snowblower. You remember my neighbor, the one who bakes me bread, makes me soup, and brings me fresh stuff from his garden.  He is an older man and I like to think he looks out for us since his own kids don't live at home anymore.  Honestly, I have no idea how we would have done it without him. But, the important part is we survived, the power didn't go out, and everyone got to stay home today!

ps. if anyone out there loves us please buy us a snowblower.  we aren't picky, just one that works :)

Dreams

All three of my children are active sleepers.  They toss, turn, talk and yell all night long.  Sometimes I'll lay awake and try to listen to the things they are saying in their sleep.  One of my children in particular has very scary dreams.  Dreams that cause him to cry out in the night.  We've talked a lot of about this with him (and his father who lets him watch the Mummy right before bedtime), and I thought making dream catchers would be a fun thing to try.  I thought about buying the pre-made kits and assembling them, but I wanted my kids to each be able to choose their feathers, beads, and colors.  After a few tutorials on you tube we made these, even weaving the pattern in the middle with real sinew.  Afterward we talked about how they work and hung them in their rooms.  Ethan asked me about ten times if I really thought they were going to work and if he would see the bad dreams caught in the net.  He's cute!