Monster Jam

We don't do a party every year for birthday's.  Logan will probably get one next year, since Olivia got a big one when she turned 5.  Instead we try to do something fun as a family.  This year we decided to go to Monster Jam!

Michael showed the kids some videos so they would know what to expect.  But even still, they had no idea what was coming.  It was held at AT&T Stadium (where the Cowboys play).  Just waking in the place had Olivia in awe.

When they started coming out for the first time, Logan was speechless.

I was told that since the trucks are so big and loud, and the screen is the largest screen ever (thank you Jerry Jones), that there really wasn't a bad seat in the house.  Anything at AT&T Stadium is going to cost a pretty penny--plus parking, plus food--so we sat far up.  I was fine with it.  Michael thought it would have been nicer to be a little closer. :)

The beginning part was races and they didn't really get into that much.  But they loved the free style at the end.

Then there is this crazy. 

If you know my family, then you know that my dad and brothers like to stick their tongues out in pictures.  I posted this to Facebook and said that every once in a while the Gjertson comes out in him. Ha!  Personally, I think he's a bit of a mix of Michael and my brother Jared.  Let all the saints start praying!!!!

A January Weekend

Olivia was learning to draw a giraffe in her art class, so she asked if we could go to the zoo and feed the giraffes.  That reminded me about the Penguin Days (cheaper admission) that the zoo does every January and February.  We generally go once a year around this time, so I agreed.

The weather was in the 60's, which was perfect for seeing animals.  I learned back in my nanny days that you always see more animals when it's cooler out.

I didn't take a ton of pictures, but Olivia kept asking me to snap one of her.

Olivia and Michael made a habitat for a lizard.

She did get to feed the giraffes.  Michael took a video, and I assisted, so no picture evidence.

But she did return to art class and add herself feeding the giraffe from the podium on the right. :)

She was so proud because someone at art class asked her if her teacher drew her giraffe. ;)

Sunday was a little warmer.  So after church and lunch we headed to a school to ride bikes and play on the playground.

Olivia was a riding machine.  She eventually took a break and played on the playground and conquered the monkey bars.  She was thrilled.  She's trying so hard to get to the top of rock wall 4 (she's just not tall enough). We keep telling her to just work on building her muscles.  So the monkey bars was a big boost of her confidence.

We had a very cold few months, so it's nice to finally be able to get out and enjoy nature.

Christmas 2018

Logan woke up on Christmas Eve with red eyes--looking a little off.  It always starts in his eyes for some reason.  He was doing alright until the afternoon when he took a nap (which he never does!) and started running a fever.  We ended up having to skip the Christmas Eve service.  He was rapidly getting worse.  He ended up going to bed super early.

Olivia had to put out the reindeer food by herself.

There was also no cute kids in pajama pictures by the tree.  Olivia set out the cookies for Santa by herself and then eventually headed to bed.

Michael had to stand guard while I played Santa.  Olivia tried to come out of her room at least once.  We waited until right before we went to bed to add the actual gifts from Santa.

Logan asked for a Batmobile toy and Olivia asked for an Art and Craft supply center that she saw in the Lakeshore Learning catalog.

With Logan being sick and Olivia being a night owl, they actually slept in pretty late.  I got up and got breakfast in the oven before they woke. 

We had to wake Logan and then change him into last year's Christmas pajamas.  He had slept so long that he had wet the bed.  He's not a happy riser in general, but being sick definitely did not help us.

He had a fever of around 102.6, so we gave him medicine and tried to pump the liquids.

Sweet boy!

Olivia is slightly obsessed with Junie B Jones.  She has read every book at least a half a dozen times.  Seriously.  She reads them and rereads them, arranges them in order and reads them again.  I told her if she's reading 4 chapter books in a day it's probably too easy for her.  Despite my efforts to introduce different authors and series, she returns to her beloved Junie B.  At the last minute I bought the journal and the puzzle book--2 books I did not have from my teaching days.  These were by far her favorite gifts!

We tried to make Logan as comfortable as possible.  We let him eat his skittles and Olivia assisted in the opening of the gifts when he needed a hand.

The kids had gifts from Michael and I as well as his mom.

The last gift was a big gift from my mom.  She got them each a bike.  Olivia was nervous at first, because she doesn't know how to ride a bike.  But since then, after actually learning that she can do it (still with training wheels--we're behind over here), she's declared it a favorite gift of hers.

Logan later spiked a fever of 104 and I thought we might be headed to the ER on Christmas day.  Thankfully, a bath helped bring it down.  We just kept making him drink as much as we could, giving medicine to help with the pain, and he did a lot of sleeping.

He would do better, and then crash, do better, and then crash.  The next day we ended up taking him in to the Dr and it turns out he had the flu.  Thankfully, non of the rest of us got it.

He literally did not eat for like 6 days.  We had to work to keep him hydrated (and if you know Logan, you know that is not like him-- he loves to drink).  He took multiple naps a day and did a lot of just laying around.  I caught this sweet moment where they were just relaxing in Olivia's room.

It wasn't exactly the Christmas we had thought it would be, but it ended up to still be alright.

Michael Turns 40

Since we had just come off of a 9 day vacation to Florida, a big 40th party and/or vacation wasn't really in the works. Plus, remember what I just said about that cursed late December birthday...

So we just did a celebration at home.  Michael had some vacation days to use before the end of the year, so he actually extended his day off for Christmas to a 6 day break.

He went to the movies the night before with a friend from life group.  He slept in some, and then woke up and I fixed him a favorite breakfast of his.  Then he head to the movies by himself.  He loves going to the movies and he wanted to see the new Star Wars.

While he was gone the kids and I got the house ready.

I love this picture of my favorite 3!  The kids made him special hat and Olivia and I bought him that glowing 40 pin.

Olivia made him a card, chose a gift from her and Logan, and wrapped it herself.

I thought he might know what I got him, so I wrapped a giant box...

But a smaller box was wrapped inside.  I covered the wrapping with 40 things that I love about him.

Michael and the kids had been watching some You Tube videos of the new Mario Odyssey on the Nintendo Switch. So I bought him the Switch.  He was surprised!

We ended up heading out to lunch at a local Cafe that he chose.  Then we went to Game Stop to pick up the game for the Switch.  (I knew he'd have birthday money to spend!)

We came home and the 3 of them played the new game until dinner!

After dinner we had cake and sang to him.  I think he had a pretty good day. :)

He may not love that he's 40... but I sure do love him!

We always go on a date to celebrate our birthdays, since they are a day apart. We waited until the weekend. We went to dinner and then to a Comedy Sportz show at a new comedy club in our local downtown. I promise I did attend his birthday and the date. What I've noticed after catching up on all of these blogs is... We rarely take selfies together. We may need to have Olivia start taking our picture. ;)

Valentine's Day

Another holiday is upon us...

Last year I got this reusable table cloth on after holiday clearance for like 40 cents!  So it's an upgrade from the IKEA curtain panel I've been using the last 5 years. Ha!

Olivia actually made that art in her homeschool art class, and the dove chocolate came in my good-bye Target goodie bag.  Score!

  Both kids got a tube of Reese's.  I had to run into Michael's and their Valentine's stuff was already 60% off!  So both kids also got a water paint pad.  Logan got a Monster truck toy and a giant tub of bubbles.  One of his Disney souvenirs was a BB8 bubble blower.  He has used every ounce of bubbles we had in the house.  We'll see how long this thing lasts.

Olivia got a new book--trying to get her interested in a new series.  She also got Prismacolor colored pencils, which are suppose to be artist quality colored pencils.  She needed some new ones, and she was thrilled that she got actual artist colored pencils from the art store!

She's been talking about us "heart attacking" her door for a week now.  She just kept saying how she just loves to wake up and read all of the nice things we write about her.  I love how much she was looking forward to it.

She came running into my room exclaiming that I needed to wake up because it was Valentine's Day!  (Little did she know that I had actually been up hours ago, taught 2 classes, and went back to bed!)

For breakfast they had strawberry toaster strudels with a heart drawn on in frosting--that sort of melted into a blob.  I also got those straws that are suppose to make the milk taste good.  I even attempted to give Olivia 2 straws hoping it would change the flavor enough.  She doesn't like regular milk or almond milk (which is what we buy), so she gave hers to Logan as soon as he woke up.

I quit taking 12 pictures of Logan hoping one is of him looking.  You may have noticed that from our Disney pictures.  He's just a little stinker and won't look when he's suppose to.  One day when he looks back at his pictures maybe he'll be embarrassed, but as for now, this is what we get.

Olivia couldn't wait to read all of his hearts to him.

The rest of our day was pretty normal.  I cleaned, we did school, the kids played, and they made some homemade Valentine's for Michael.  (Any excuse to use glitter glue!)

Lunch was a heat shaped sandwich, red raspberries, pink goldfish, strawberry jello with Valentine's sprinkles, and a special fruit punch juice box (as opposed to the usual water).

That about summed it up.  I'm holidayed out... and after cleaning for most of the day I'm toyed out as well.  Actually, while we're at it I'm sugared out as well.  We need a detox on all of the above.  

Since Easter lands on April Fools, I'm considering the "joke" of cancelling all of the gifts.  That's funny, right?  April Fools!  You don't get a basket full of junk this year.  Ha ha!  Just kidding... kind of.

Random December Pictures

I wasn't great about taking pictures in December.  I didn't document every Advent activity, but we did do something every day.  We took the month off of school, but since I was getting hired and starting a new job (while still working the old) I was still just trying to keep my head above water.

We started the month with a trip to the Heard Museum to see the dinosaurs.  Yes, in shorts and a sundress in December.  Don't worry.  It got colder a week later.

Our friends from life group own an HVAC company, and they participate in a lot of parades. We rode on their float for our towns Christmas parade.  It was a first for all of us.

Jessica had a bunch of hats to wear.  I don't think Logan was amused.

We went on our annual carriage ride at Watters Creek.  We also saw Santa there earlier in the month.

We went to Logan's preschool performance.  He was the cutest little cow I ever did see.

We made fun shaped pizza for dinner one night.

My sweet friend Heather threw a birthday party for myself and our friend Emily.  Unfortunately, despite our warnings of the cursed late December birthday, not many showed up. 

 But we still had a blast.  I love that girl!

That gets us til the week of Christmas.  (I think I depended on Michael to take pictures this month, because it is crazy how few I have.)