Miss Mya is 5 1/2

Thanks to my sis-in-law Amanda, I realized we had a half birthday coming up! And a half birthday when your birthday is in the summer is kind of a big deal!

Here's what's up with our half birthday girl. She is loving kindergarten in every sense of the word. She's reading up a storm, learning to spell and not really worrying about the words that she misspells. I was kind of worried at first when she would only write the word if it was spelled right. She loves her friends, recess, lunch (when it's brought from home:) and really doesn't complain at all. (fon=fun)



She has had strep throat twice this fall/winter and we're hoping that trend does not continue. She knows how to get me to jump...telling me her throat hurts! She loves to get out of bed a lot after she has been tucked in, and to get up in the middle of the night which is quite annoying. The other night when Chris was gone she came into my room to see if she could sleep with me. I told her she could (because I was lazy) and when she turned back to go get her blanket, she walked right into the door that she closed when she walked in! It's kind of funny now, but it wasn't then:)

Mya is so so good with Ivy. They play and laugh together all the time. She can get Ivy all washed up in the bathtub and can get her dressed and her shoes on. (All of this requires Ivy's cooperation which doesn't always happen) She really wants another baby brother or sister. When I asked her why she said, "So I can take care of the zero and you can take care of Ivy." This little girl wants to be a mommy so badly! I secretly love it. That was me growing up and I love seeing how she takes care of her babies.




Miss Mya wants her ears pierced in the worst way. I was going to do it for Christmas, but then I thought we were getting her too much so I was hoping to put it off until her birthday. It appears as though that's not going to work. She has begged and pleaded and begged and pleaded some more. We decided today that if she can go to bed 10 nights without getting out of bed, she can get her ears pierced. Check back here in 10 days and I guarantee there will be a post about it! She is also into getting married. Today she told me her wedding was on Christmas so here's the outfit she pulled off...quite a diva if I do say so myself!

Holiday program at Church

I'm waaaaay behind on posts from the holidays, so here goes. More to come....just don't know when!

On Sunday December 16th, the kids had their Christmas program at church. One Sunday in early November, the children's choir director asked if anyone wanted a solo in the program. I explained to Max and Mya what a solo was and their responses were as expected. Mya: NO WAY Max: YES PLEASE.

They had a few practices and we worked with him a little at home. I have to admit, I'm not a music person and the music he was singing was not a typical Christmas song that I could hum the tune. We ended up recording Grandpa David sing it over Thanksgiving so that was a big help!

The night of the performance, he was cool as a cucumber. I was a little nervous, but that's because I wouldn't have done something like that in a million years when I was younger ever. He was the first solo of the evening and he was fantastic. The microphone didn't work and he just rolled with it. By the 3rd verse, the director forgot to cue him to come in, so he was a little late, but did great with that as well. At one point when people were scrambling trying to get the microphone to work he just shrugged his shoulders like "oh well." We were pretty proud. Here's a link to you tube so you can see it if you want.

"Good News" by Maxwell Hoden on youtube

Mya was great in the performance as well. She got to be a sheep and Max got to be a shepherd for the Christmas story and they loved that. (even though it does not appear that Mya loved it in the picture below.:) All in all...a really nice night! Thanks to Grandpa Rog, Grandma Pat and Uncle Jeff for coming to watch and helping with the crazy 2 year old in our lives:)

Okinawa!

Chris and I got back earlier this week from an absolutely wonderful trip to Okinawa to see my sister and her husband Tony. When we found out they were being placed in Japan for 3 years, we decided we had to take a trip. We decided last fall that this was as good a time as any to go because Tara had some time off of school and Tony had time off around the holidays as well.

We left Sunday December 29th from our house at 5am. We drove to Chicago and flew from Chicago to Tokyo. Then in Tokyo, we had a short layover and then flew to Okinawa and arrived at 9:05pm Monday December 30th. Crazy how that goes flying over the international dateline.

Saw this facebook post when we arrived in Tokyo:)



We were pretty tired when we arrived so it was the perfect time to go to bed! I can't explain how good it felt to give Tara a HUGE hug. I have missed her so much and just knew they needed to see some familiar faces and I was so happy it was Chris and me. We face-timed my mom and dad on the way home from the airport and there were definitely some tears of joy seeing both of their girls together in Japan!



My first thoughts....it was really strange seeing Tony get in the car to drive on the passenger side! They drive on the left side of the road in tiny, tiny cars! I was worried our luggage wouldn't fit, but it was a breeze. The 45 minute or so drive home was dark so I couldn't get a good feel for the island until the next few days. When we got to Tara's, there were USMC sweatpants and sweatshirts for us both (we affectionately called them snuggies and proceeded to wear them all week whenever we were inside!) I could write for hours here so here's the shortened version of the trip...

Tuesday: Explored around Yomitan Village (where they live), walked out to the cape, went and looked at some pottery, played lots of cards (a theme for this trip), went out for sushi (another theme) and went to bed EARLY as I felt like I got hit by a truck around 7PM from jet lag! We toasted 2014 at 9pm because we were pretty sure I would never make it to midnight!

Wednesday: Woke up to a beautiful day in Okinawa! I think Chris and I got up at 4:30am that day, but oh well! Thanks to Netflix and the coffee pot, we were good to go until Tara and Tony woke up a few hours later:) Jet lag at its best I tell ya! We hung out a bit and then went to play some tennis at a local resort. We had a great time doing some drills and getting a good work out in. Afterwards Tony dropped Tara and I off at a friends house nearby to get a bike for Tara and we biked/ran/walked back home. We got lost on the way home, but after not seeing my sister for 5 months...we had plenty to talk about until we made it home! We made sandwiches and headed to the beach for a picnic. It was so nice to feel the sun on our faces and our pale skin! The beach was beautiful...it is located on a coral reef so the color of the water was breathtaking. The water was a little cool so we never got in, but the views were unbelievable. We played cards, took a nap and soaked it all in. The rest of the day was pretty low-key and I'm pretty sure I went to bed at 8pm that night!

Thursday: Woke up to another beautiful day! Well...when I woke up it was pitch black for a few more hours until the sun came out and then we knew it was a gorgeous day! We went to Kadena (the biggest base on the island...an Air Force base) and got some more groceries, did a little shopping at the Commissary while the guys hit some balls at the driving range and drove around the base. I loved seeing the base as I really had nothing to compare it to and Tara talks about base a lot. We ate lunch at Coco Currys and headed to the beach again! We found a different spot this time that was totally tucked away and we had a great afternoon playing cards and hanging out!

Friday: Tony had to go to work Friday so Chris, Tara and I went to the beach for a couple of hours Friday morning and then we headed up the island to Camp Hansen, where Tony works. We got to see what he does every day. It's always very humbling to be on a base and see what our Armed Forces are doing for us each day. After a short tour, we headed to lunch, caught the last quarter of the Alabama/Oklahoma football game and then headed home in the rain. Tony got home early and we played more cards, ordered take-out and had a great night laughing and hanging out.

Saturday: We split up for most of Saturday. The guys went golfing on Kadena while Tara and I got manicures/pedicures. After nails, we headed to the American Village for lunch and had sushi at a place called Sushi-go-round. The name made sense once we walked in. you sit down at a bar type thing and the sushi is going around and around on a conveyor belt and you just grab what you want! The prices are based on what color plate it's on. It was delicious and my stack of plates was not small:) After sushi, we headed to Tara's school and rearranged her desks for spring semester (she's getting 3 new students) and I got a tour of her school. Tara is not a teacher by trade but what she's doing there is very admirable. The kids love her and she's doing an outstanding job with little (if any) training. After meeting back up with the guys, we hung out (probably played cards) and headed to dinner at Menomee Sushi...the best sushi I've ever had. Even Chris ate it!!!! I can't explain it, but the atmosphere was perfect (we sat on the floor with our shoes off) and the sushi...to die for.

Sunday: We had a total chill day. We did a little shopping, were planning on going to the beach but it was a bit too chilly, played lots of cards, watched some play-off football games that were airing Saturday night in the US, did laundry, packed, ate at the only place left on our list for lunch and just hung out the rest of the day. It was a great end to a great trip.

Monday: Our flight left at 12:50 so Tony left work, came to get us and drive us through incredible traffic to the airport. We arrived in plenty of time. The short flight was first, followed by the long flight to Chicago. Everything was on time and we made it home just in time for the arctic blast. I was really worried our car was not going to start, but it started right away. A nice man from the park-n-ride we were at helped get the car dug out and we were on our way. It was so good to see the kids (Max and Mya) when we got home. Ivy was already asleep...I considered waking her up, but wisely did not do it! They had several surprises for us around the house and talked a mile a minute. Thank you so much to both of our parents for coming to Dubuque to take care of the kiddos while we were gone. We couldn't have done this without you and really appreciate being able to leave and not worry about them. The kids did great, but are not ready to have us leave again anytime soon! I'm pretty sure Max grew 2 inches while we were gone and Ivy's vocabulary doubled.

Here goes the pictures!

Not cold enough for us....:)

As if the cold, arctic like days we've been having in Iowa weren't enough for us, we've decided to move to Canada! Yep...you read that right. Canada. Chris accepted a job with John Deere in Edmonton, Alberta. We're not exactly sure all of the dates on when this will take place, but most likely Chris will go in March and I will stay with the kids until school is over.

I've had some time to process this so if it seems like it's not a huge deal right now..it's because I found out it was a possibility the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Chris knew he had a meeting that morning that he thought seemed a little weird. All morning I was e-mailing him to see how the meeting was and he wouldn't email me back so I knew something was up. He got Hy-vee Chinese for us to eat quick before we hit the road to Minnesota for Thanksgiving and I barely let him in the door before I made him tell me what was up. Obviously I was shocked and completely overwhelmed instantly. An expat assignment was not something we had ever talked about. We talked about it the whole way to Minnesota, the entire Thanksgiving weekend and eventually with both of our families. It was not an easy decision at all, but we decided it was a good opportunity and to just go for it while the kids were young and flexible.

I'm a huge believer in that there is a plan for us and that we just have to figure out the signs along the way to help us get to that plan. When Chris brought home that Chinese food and we were in a hurry, we didn't get a chance to eat the fortune cookies right away. When we got home from the weekend I opened one up and here's what the fortune read. "Now is a good time to explore." It was before we told John Deere our final decision and it just was the sign I was looking for. There were others, but this was one of the big ones.



We told the kids a few weeks after Thanksgiving. At first Max laid down on the floor and started whining about missing his friends for about 10 seconds. Then he got up and said, "I'm going to go pack!" Mya and Max had tons of questions. Mya's were mostly about her stuff...could she bring this or that, etc. They asked lots of questions about whether or not it was closer to various people...Grandpas and Grandmas, Tate and Adria, Santa, etc. The only one I could answer yes to was Santa! They also asked about Chloe and we're not sure yet what we're going to do with her so that was a hard one to answer. Max asked about whether or not we have to learn a new language (answer is no...Alberta is not a French speaking province) Other things they did/said. Max asked to be home-schooled, requested a 3 story house (pretty sure he means a 2 story with a basement) and they had lots of questions about their new school which I couldn't answer yet. Mya wanted to be driven to her new school instead of taking the bus and of course I obliged. They were excited about the fact that to come back to visit, we have to take an airplane!

Now you're probably wondering...where in the heck is Edmonton??? Here you go. Western Canada...capital of Alberta.


Some other fun facts....

--Edmonton is the northernmost North American city with a population over one million.
--Edmonton is home to North America’s largest mall – the West Edmonton Mall, spanning the equivalent of 48 city blocks. It was the world’s largest mall until 2004.
--On the first day of summer Edmonton enjoys 17 hours and three minutes of daylight. --The sun rises at 5:04 and sets at 10:07. You can head out to golf 18 holes at 8pm.
--Winter is another story. The sun rises at 8:49 and sets at 4:16, providing only seven hours and 27 minutes of daylight.
--It's in the mountain time zone so one hour behind us here.
--4 hour drive to Banff National Park (in case any of you have been planning a trip there!:) Get your passports ready:)
--There are two direct flights to Minneapolis every day
--School does not get out until June 26th so that is one of the reasons I'm not going to pull the kids out mid-year. They started the middle of August so they don't need to be going until the end of June!
--They use the metric system so it will be quite a change to get used to measuring everything differently.

Dubuque has been absolutely the best place for us these past 5 years. A few people told us that Dubuque was a hard town to crack if you were not from here and we had the opposite feeling while we were here. It was the most welcoming city and we made some lifelong friends here that will be very very hard to say good-bye to. I know we were put here for a reason...to be surrounded by some of the best people for 5 years while we were going through the craziness of parenting 3 little ones. I love love living here and sincerely hope our paths cross again someday. Thank goodness for social media and free phone calls/text messages to Canada:) We are so thankful for the support of our families as well. We are less than 2 hours away from my parents here and about 5 from Chris's parents. It will take significant more time/money to come and see us now, but they have been awesome about this and I know we will make it work.

(it's a bit of a drive...and yes I did this at 5:15 am...jet lag at its best!)


For now....we still have 5 months here and lots and lots (and lots) of unanswered questions. Chris and I will go on a house-hunting trip and to look at schools sometime in the next couple of months and we'll go from there. I'm trying hard to be patient and to not be sad. There are good days, and there are some harder days too. And btw...this was my 500th post. Didn't do it on purpose, but I guess I saved a big one for #500!

Early Christmas present

I have lots of blogging to catch up on, but first I wanted to make sure I got a post out there about the early Christmas present we all received! Last Friday I took Ivy in to the allergist for her semi-annual check up to see if she had grown out of her milk allergy. They were really hoping she had, but he said it may not be until next time. So they injected her with the histamine, the control and the milk. Same as usual. About one minute in (after the nurse left the room) I realized something was going wrong! She was itching like crazy and had hives all over her back! I was really nervous that the allergy had actually gotten worse. So I went and got the nurse and when she came in, she said she was having a bad reaction to the histamine, but her milk spot was negative! Since she had to be sure (with all the redness and hives) she injected her again with milk in her arm and we waited 15 more minutes. It was again clear!! I was pretty pumped. I know a lot of people deal with much bigger problems than a milk allergy and I'm blessed that this was all it was, but I'm pretty happy not to have to deal with it anymore. Ivy was getting big and was starting to realize her food was different than Max and Mya's.

Going forward..I'm going to keep almond milk in her diet because I think it's good for her and is so high in calcium. And I will slowly introduce everything else. She has had some ice cream and yogurt and loved them both! We learned a lot through this ordeal about food and what all goes into food so in that respect, it was good for us. I also learned sympathy for others who have food allergies. It's definitely a question I will ask from now on whenever I'm entertaining or watching anyone's kids. We're still dealing with the peanut thing with Mya, but I think that will be lifelong and Mya is so good about asking if something has peanuts. Below are some pictures I took of her reaction to the histamine.

phone update!

I was going through my phone today deleting pictures and decided it was time for an update on what we've been up to. Here goes...

Max woke up last Monday morning with what I thought was pink eye. Turns out it was just an eye infection/virus of some sort. So he stayed home from school on Monday and then it moved to the other eye on Wednesday and got another sick day at home with mom. He didn't miss a day in kindergarten (other than for disney and a trip to MN) and these were his first missed days of 1st grade. He says he could get used to it:)



Here's our family picking up our Christmas tree! This little tradition of going to Menards to get our tree started last year when we set out to do the whole "tree farm" thing and get pictures of our family cutting down the tree. Turned out...the place was closed so we ended up going to Menards! Our tree is lovely and I have actual pictures of it, but not on my phone so it will have to wait until another post!



This is how Ivy and I do lunch when Mya (peanut allergy) is at school!



The kids have been having a ton of fun with our Elf on the Shelf, Mim. In fact, the little guy himself sent these Elf on the Shelf pillow cases straight from Nebraska the North Pole as a little gift! (more to come on the kind of mischief mim has been up to lately in a later post...)





Ivy is becoming quite the little iPad guru. She wants to listen to her Mother Goose Songs all the time. In fact...she's gotten to love listening to music so much that she doesn't want me to sing them anymore!



We hit up the Mississippi River Museum holiday party for members again this year. It was a really fun night of walking around the museum and eating really good food!



I was sick in bed yesterday with the flu. Max figured I was probably bored (he was right) so he brought me a word search!



Here are my 3 favorite skiers...ready to go to the slopes of Iowa! I thought they would last about an hour, but they made it 3 hours and I guess it was Chris who was ready to come home first! Thankfully Uncle Jeff came with as well so they each got one-on-one help since it was Mya's first time.

Turkey Trot 2013

As most of you know, the turkey trot has not been one of my favorite traditions.  Every year I start thinking about it mid-October and every year I do nothing other than think about it!  Other than year 1 (2001) when Brian was still recovering from his broken leg, arm, foot, etc. and the year that Amanda was 7 months pregnant with Grace (2009), I have gotten last place. So basically, I have never beaten a legitimate competitor. Until now. Thus...I am doing the recap this year. I told myself years ago that if I ever beat someone, I will write it! So here goes...


The tradition we all love to hate continues for a 13th consecutive year. Rules remain the same. You run it no matter where you are in the world. Never did we think this would actually mean someone would be running it on another continent!

Unbelievable weather in Decorah on race day (Saturday NOvember 30) It was a bit windy on the straight away, but overall we couldn't have asked for a nicer day to run!

Runners started the race at 10:30 AM...just in time for us to recover slightly from the night before, for Grady to be up from his nap,  to allow the kids to eat lunch and be at the free movie matinee with Grandpa Rog by noon!

Kiddos were fabulous this year. All 4 of the big kids (Max, Mya, Olivia and Grace) gave it their best shot. To see those little legs moving around the track was awesome. At the 3/4 point of the first lap, Chris was yelling at Max to slow down. He was keeping up with him step for step. Olivia, Mya and Max all finished the race and got a recorded time! Looking forward to watching these guys grow up together and continuing the tradition.

Everyone really enjoyed not being lapped this year. Spirits were much higher at the end of the race, even if times were down a bit:)

Yellow shirts were in full effect. It took some digging, but we found our old "Go Tara" shirts from 2007 and made some homemade "Go Tony" shirts. It was sad that they weren't there to run with us, but we wanted them to be with us in spirit!

Twenty two days after giving birth, Amanda was out jogging around the track while pushing the stroller and finishing with a respectable time all things considered.

Rog and Pat were on kid patrol and timing duty. I fully expect Rog will be back in action next year. A certain 2 year old was a handful this year:) She wanted to continue the tradition that one kid has to start bawling as soon as everyone takes off. Next year my bet is on Grady.

Overseas runners didn't quite get the trot in on time even though they are 15 hours ahead of us. Tony had to leave for mainland Japan so they were a little late on the run. Don't worry though...we did not reveal our times until after they ran. I didn't want them having an unfair advantage! (like they need it, but hey..)

Times for 2013 are as follows:
#1: Anthony Brown: 5:54
#2: Chris Hoden 7:48
#3: Tara Brown 8:20
#4: Max Hoden 9:02
#5: Beth Hoden 9:04
#6: Brian Huinker 10:35
#7: Mya Hoden & Olivia Huinker: 12:55
#8: Amanda Huinker: 13:35

                                                      proof that Tara ran one mile:)

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year! We went up to the twin cities on Wednesday afernoon. Ivy had a terrible time the first 2 hours because she basically woke up from a nap and we put her in the car. So we stopped at my parents for 10 minutes and she did better the rest of the way. We spent some time with Chris's parents and then Jeff came a couple hours after us. It was funny how exctied the kids were to see Uncle Jeff! He lives here in Dubuque, but they acted like they hadn't seen him in months!

Thursday we went down to Grandpa Bill's for a great day of feasting, ads reading, resting, feasting some more, crafting and ads reading some more! We hadn't met Chris's cousin Gretchen's daughter Emma yet so the kids loved seeing her.




Thursday night Chris, Jeff and I headed out for some Thanksgiving shopping. We couldn't believe how many stores were open and we had to see the madness. We went to Wal-Mart and basically walked out as soon as we walked in. The people were nuts. One little girl asked a store clerk how much something was and the store clerk yelled "I DON'T KNOW, WHAT DOES IT SAY??" I just had to laugh. So we went to Target and stood outside in line for 40 minutes freezing our buns off and laughing about how crazy we were. It was worth it..we got what we wanted and got out of there and back home in about an hour.



Annual Hoden family photo!


Friday we headed down to Decorah to see my family. We stopped first and my aunt Mary's house and met up with my parents, brother and Tony's parents and sister and families. The kids had a blast running around with the other kids and the adults had a nice time laughing and probably drinking a little too much wine! Afterwards we put the kids to bed and met up with the adults at Brian and Amanda's house for game night. Tara and Tony were surely missed, but it was neat how all the people there were there because of Tara and Tony. We'll have many many Thanksgivings with them in the future and I can't wait.

Saturday we ran the annual turkey trot. All of the details are coming soon when our family members in Asia run:) I don't want them knowing our times before they run because it could give them an unfair advantage! I will leave you with two things...1. My time had to have been affected by the wine the night before. 2. I didn't lose for the first time ever!

Saturday afternoon Grandpa Rog took the 4 big kiddos to a movie and the rest of us watched football, went shopping, and hung out in some peace and quiet! Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Olivia and Mya had a lot of fun in the bathtub as usual:)






The kiddos before the race:)