A Sad Good-bye

We have had an extremely emotional and sad week at our house.  Steve and I made the difficult decision to find a new home for Tek.  We have felt for some time that we are not able to provide for him the exercise and attention that he deserves.  I have been increasingly frustrated with the daily accumulation of dog hair found on every surface of the house.  What surprised me about our decision was how upset I have been over the finality of his removal from our home.  Every night and day I have battled between logic and emotion. He was a part of our family since Marcus was 6 months old and he was the sweetest, gentlest dog.  But even with this battle, each day I took the next steps towards his leaving our home.

The right situation presented itself this Thursday.  An acquaintance from our homeschool co-op mentioned that her family was going to be getting a puppy in the next few weeks.  I told her about Tek.  She emailed me that night that they would love to have him.  They have 5 acres of land.  And a pond.  And black labs are their favorite dog.  And they are 'dog' people.  And we know them well enough that we could go visit him.  How could I pass this up?  But I was heart broken and almost pulled out numerous times, even right up to a few minutes before they arrived.

Tek's new family came and took him Friday afternoon.  It was as horrible as you can imagine.  Zach tried to hide his feelings and kept blinking away the tears.  Our final hour with him we took lots of pictures, and threw the ball for him and gave him tons of hugs and words of praise.  He was a great dog and we love him.  After Tek was gone I grab my boys and we all cried on the couch (well, actually, I cried, Zach tried not to cry and Eli tried to cry since he was sure he should be feeling something since everyone else was so upset).  Together we made tough decisions on wether we wanted to put Tek's dog bed away or leave it out as a reminder.  Thankfully, the boys wanted it all put out-of-sight, which aligned with what I really wanted.

After a few very depressing hours, I decided that we needed to get out of the house so I suggested a rare treat to Sweet Frog, which is a frozen yogurt and toppings bar.  (When the boys are older I feel certain some counselor will tell them that their mother taught them to use food as a comfort when they are upset...but I will let them work that out later.  For now, Sweet Frog was the perfect distraction for all of us.)

So we continue on in our grief.  Tek is very happy and we have seen video of him running laps on his new property.  And eventually, we will be happy too.

Good-bye 2014!

Thanksgiving ended and December began with our family struggling through the flu.  We had almost 4 weeks of sickness in our house.  It began with a cold virus, moved on to an exciting ER trip for Marcus (the kind were they want to helicopter your child to a Washington Children's hospital--but that is a separate story...), then it transitioned to a 10 day influenza flu, and wrapped up with a sinus infection for me.  Needless to say, it was hardly my favorite 4 weeks, but we did indeed emerge healthy from our ailments ready to celebrate the Winter Solstice, Christmas, Zach's 8th birthday and a New Year!

The boys set a 'fancy' table for our Winter Solstice dinner!

After the storm

While I have been trying to decide where to plant bushes and trees in our yard, all of my boys are deciding which type of sporting field we should have.  This Christmas we added a nice landscape addition in the form of a field goal post.  Every mother's dream.  This gift was a highlight for our boys, with their father probably the most excited of them all.  Steve constructed our goal post out of PVC pipes and it has the impressive distinction over the NFL's by being adjustable in height!  You will be happy to know that I have drawn the line at no bleachers in our yard....

A Charlie Brown Christmas

As we prepared for Christmas this year we were frequently serenaded by this version of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing".  I have no idea what he is saying but what he lacks in enunciation he makes up for in enthusiasm!  It definitely contributed to the Christmas spirit in our home. 

(For those of you receive my posts via email, I think you will have to go to the actual blog to be able to view this video.  morningswithzach.blogspot.com)

Another year, another tree

We have learned a valuable lesson from past tree hunting experience, and that is that trees in the field are much larger in your home!  This year we took a measuring tape.  (My father will be pleased to know that the unemotional measuring tape steered us in the right direction!)

Thanksgiving Guitar Recital

On Thanksgiving day, the boys played some of the songs that they have been learning on the guitar! 

Fenway Park

Even though the Red Sox did not cooperate with having a great year, my crew was very excited to get up to Boston and experience the magic of Fenway for the first time.  This trip has been talked about for many years, with the boys anxiously waiting for Eli to be 'old enough'.  Well he finally was(!) and in August this year the older boys and Steve and Uncle Dan made the pilgrimage north!!  The boys were beyond excited about this trip:

Starting the road trip at 5AM!

Some of their loot!

The highlight of the trip was unanimously agreed upon as being when Daniel Nava threw them not one, but TWO balls during batting practice while the boys were on their tour of Fenway!

Shenandoah National Park

Way back in August, over Labor Day weekend, our little family unit went camping.  The boys have been asking for a true camping trip for a few years and we decided to end our summer with it.  

After an incredible amount of packing and planning (really I had forgotten how much work goes into a relaxing weekend of camping!) we managed to lug all of our stuff to Virginia for 2 nights of camping and hiking.  Despite the endless packing and constant vigilance Marcus needed around the fire, I hope we have many more camping trips in the future.

We have a picture of Zach asleep in this same carrier during a hiking trip!

Card games in the tent during a ferocious storm.

We ended our trip with a tour of the Luray Caverns!  

Another school year begins

Kindergarten

2nd Grade

Disturber of the classroom

While Marcus may never have met his namesake….he has adopted his Papou's expressions!

Has anyone seen my four-year-old?

 Four-year-old Eli is no more.  This actually does really make me sad.  I may be a tad crazy or just sentimental, but each milestone almost feels like a death.  Baby Eli is gone and while I love who has replaced him, somedays I'd like to go back and just hold baby Eli again….

Elijah, however, is not at all sad to be another year older.  And, despite all of our pleas to forgo his birthday and have him stay the same age, he has indeed decided to turn 5!

Conversations

Here are some recent conversations with Eli (4.9 years):

Upon coming home from work one day, Steve told Eli that he was growing up too fast and needed to stop!  Eli responded, "Well dad...you want me to change your diapers when you get old don't you? ...Then I need to grow up!"

And then,

The night before homeschool started for this year we asked Eli if he was ready for the school year.  Eli said, "Well I already know that 8 + 8 = 2, so I don't really need school!"

Professional photography makes all the difference….