2018 Year in Review

January 2018

This month swimming pretty much took over our lives. Ivy and Max were both involved 2-3 nights a week with practice and every weekend with a swim meet. Max also competed in the local spelling bee and placed in the top 10 so he got to move onto regionals. The big word he spelled correctly was "methuselah". We couldn't believe it. We also celebrated my cousin Kylie's baby shower in Decorah! I started teaching the GED program at NICC 3 days a week and loved it and switched from teaching ESL two nights a week in Cascade to just one.

February 2018

Braces 2.0 for Maxwell this month. He will most likely have them on for 1.5-2 years. Swimming season ended Feb 8th and we headed to Edmonton February 9th for 10 days! We had a heck of a time getting out of Chicago due to a big snow storm, but eventually made it and were greeted at the airport by dear friends. We had the best time...spent a few days in Edmonton, then went to the mountains with friends and then back to Edmonton to spend time at the kids' old school and spent a few nights with our best neighbor friends. Unseasonably warm temperatures at the end of the month closed Sundown early, but we enjoyed what we thought would be an early spring.

March 2018

March started out with beautiful weather and Max was able to celebrate his birthday outside doing his favorite thing..playing with neighbors! We played basketball, hockey, tennis, capture the flag and lots more. Little did we know...2 days later the snow would return and our garage would be a total disaster since all the bikes, scooters, etc. were out as well as shovels, snow blower, etc. Grandma and Grandpa Hoden came down for the spelling bee and to celebrate my birthday. We decided on my actual birthday we would go to Galena and look at some puppies from a breeder we were interested in. It was a great day and we decided to put money down on a future litter and were really hoping that we would get one of Lulu's pups if it worked out. We didn't go anywhere for spring break, but spent a weekend in Chicago for St. Patrick's Day. We got to see the green river and went to Sunday brunch at the House of Blues.

                                                    what a difference two days makes!

                                                       

                                                        It's a girl! Kenna born 3/16/18

                                                                We loved Lulu!!

                                                   Happy 11th birthday Maxwell!

April

We celebrated Easter at our house this year. Chris's parents came down and so did my parents. We worked on getting a garden put together and got other stuff done around the house. We enjoyed some nice weather and longer days. On April 18th we got a dumping of snow and by the 20th it was almost gone in time for a huge surprise 40th brithday party for Chris! We had the Magoo's pizza truck here, Chris's favorite Decorah beer and his favorite college friends along with 30 of our best friends from Dubuque and the area. It was a highlight of the entire year. We had the best time. We ended the month getting some of our cooler weather vegetables planted in our garden.

May

May brought a couple fun weekends in Decorah with cousins. Tara and her girls came for a couple weeks so we took advantage of seeing them on the weekends. One of the weekends Chris's parents came down to Decorah for Mother's Day. We got more vegetables planted, Ivy  had a fun field trip to a dairy farm and our grass turned a beautiful green! My mom helped me get some flowers at a menonite greenhouse near Decorah and it turned out to be the first year of my life I was able to keep flowers alive through the summer. Our friends from Edmonton/Minnesota came for Memorial Day weekend and the month ended on a super high when Lulu had her puppies and we knew we would be getting one of them at the end of July!

                                                 

June

June was a crazy month with school ending and all of the activities beginning. The month started with me making the (very difficult) decision to leave NICC and go to Hempstead High School for a part-time Spanish job. I knew I wanted to eventually get on the same schedule with the kids and this opportunity seemed too good to pass up. School got out June 5th. It was a great year for everyone. It was the last school year all of my kids would be in the same school. There was lots of soccer in June including on tournament Father's Day weekend in 95+ degree weather! Mya spent a week with Olivia and the Huinker family at Camp DuNord in Ely, MN. She loved her first experience being away from home by herself and hopes to go back again in the future. We salvaged an old swing set from neighbors and Chris worked many hours getting it put back together. We got to meet the puppies and pick out which one we wanted in June. We decided on "teal" puppy and the countdown began. I spent a weekend in Minneapolis celebrating my friend Rachel's baby shower and we ended the month in Chicago doing some sight seeing and going to the Dave Matthews Concert with our friends Jaramee and Jeff!
                                         

July

July started with spending the 4th of July at the country club swimming and watching some fireworks. Our garden was starting to produce some vegetables, Max took golf lessons, Mya had gymnastics 4 mornings a week and Ivy swam so much I thought her skin would permanently wrinkle. On the 18th we celebrated Mya's 10th birthday. She had some friends from school over to celebrate and they had a great time. On the 20th was a highlight of the year when we brought our new puppy Jasper Lu Hoden home for good! We got him at 10am and at 3pm my brother and his kids were down here for the Mississippi Valley Tennis tournament where him and I played some mixed doubles. The  day after that we took off for Decorah for one night and then up to the cabin for the week with our brand new puppy! The timing wasn't perfect, but it all ended up okay. We had a great time at the cabin despite big waves. We went to Nissua to see some friends one day and did some turtle races We ended the month back in Decorah for Nordic Fest.

August

Mya and Olivia started the month with a cake decorating class here in Dubuque. They did a great job and hope to do it again next summer. Max and Ivy did the bike race and school started for the kids and me! Late in the month Chris, Jeff and their parents went to Finland for a week to visit. Chris was there for work for a few days and then met up with them. They had a wonderful time. The rest of the month was spent keeping an eye on a puppy that was not wanting to be potty trained! It was a lot of work, but by the end of the month he was starting to get it. Mya got to go to an Elite training camp for gymnastics with two former Olympians. Kyla Ross and Betty Okino. She got the work ethic award and learned a lot about what it takes to be an elite gymnast.

          Ivy gave me a sunflower in a styrofoam cup for Mother's Day and this is how big it got!

September

September started off with hosting the Luther Women's tennis team for dinner after their matches with Loras and University of Dubuque. It was the last time my cousin Kelsey will play in Dubuque so it was so fun to host the team. Jasper got his first haircut and he looked sooooo different! Max got his school pictures back and I wondered where my little boy went! Mya went in for some allergy testing and we did not get the results we were hoping for. She is still allergic to peanuts and now most tree nuts as well. Poor girl was so itchy after they put all of those allergens on her back. Another season of rooting for the Minnesota Vikings began with hope for a repeat of last season! Jasper ate a marble and an earring and ended up with surgery on the 28th. Mya had her first gymnastics competition in Madison on the 29th and she won the all around award for her age group and her team got 1st place for level 4's! The  month ended with Max winning the election for student council representative for his house 6-3 at Roosevelt Middle School.

October

In October we took in a Loras/Luther soccer game. The game didn't go our way, but we had fun with friends cheering on our Norse. I worked at an after school tennis program at Washington Middle School for 6 weeks and we had our finale indoors at the tennis club here in town. It was a great experience and made me excited to get back into coaching. Marie took our family pictures and my sister and her girls came down for a visit and to watch Mya's gymnastics meet. We made a quick trip to Decorah on the weekend of the 13/4 and then on the 16th we took off for Disney World! We hadn't been since 2013 and it was Ivy's first time. We spent 3 days just our family and then some friends joined us on the weekend and for the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. We had a wonderful time despite temps in the 90's! We got home and Mya had another gym meet in Waterloo and she got 1st place again. The kids had a great Halloween as a Viking, a pirate and one of the ninja turtles. Jasper even got in on the action and was a "rufferee".

                                         

                                              

November

November started with celebrating El Dia de los Muertos in my classes. An old student from NICC made some "pan de muerto" for my students to try. We had one final weekend of soccer and it was awful...pouring rain and 35 degrees. We were reallllly ready for the election to be done because we were so sick of hearing the ads! We celebrated Friendsgiving with our old neighborhood and Mya had two  more gym meets. We celebrated Ivy turning 7 on the 11th with a party at All Around Gymnastics. Swim season started in Maquoketa with huge time drops for Max. The ski hill opened on the 18th and Max and Mya got out on the 2nd day it opened. We spent Thanksgiving in Maple Grove and did some fun black Friday shopping and had a night out with Chris's college friends. We fit the 18th annual turkey trot in on the weekend after Thanksgiving and even got our tree picked out at Mendards and were getting excited for the Christmas season.

                                            

December

December was full of activities! We had two swim meets and two gymnastics meets in the first two weekends. Thankfully, on December 8th, all 3 kids were competing in Cedar Rapids. Max and Ivy swam at the YMCA and Mya had the state gymnastics meet at Twisters Gymnastics. Mya had a great season in level 4 and ended the year 1st on beam and floor and 2nd all around. Bars were her best all year and she just made a mistake at state that was disappointing. Won't be the first time for sure! It was a good lesson and overall she had an excellent year. We did a little baking around here. I  made homemade cinnamon rolls for the first time...but it won't be the last. They were delicious! The last couple weeks of school were a little crazy. When Friday December 21st came, I was soooo tired. I basically laid around and watched Christmas movies for 3 straight days. We had a nice Christmas here just the 5 of us and then we headed up to the cabin and had a few great days there. We even got snow which was great since we hadn't seen much this year! We relaxed, ate good food, did another 1000 piece puzzle and played lots of games. After the cabin we headed to Decorah where my parents gave the kids their gift...two nights at the great wolf lodge in Minneapolis! We also surprised Max, Mya and Olivia with tickets to the Vikings/Bears game. They were pretty shocked to say the least! We also fit in Mary Kathryn and Mike Krol's wedding in Decorah. It was super beautiful and I was so happy to have a small part in it. We had a great time at the game despite the outcome and then had a great two days with family at the waterpark. We missed Tara's fam for sure though!

                                       

2018 was filled with many blessings. We are so thankful for healthy kids, parents and friends. Looking forward to 2019!

Max is 12! (well, he has been for awhile:)

Maxwell,

Better late than never? I had kind of given up on blogging, but then you guys started going through all of the old blog books and reading them, so I decided it would be sad if I stopped with these birthday letters! Dad has you at the cabin for a few days to let me get some school stuff done. I'm taking a break from organizing files to write a little note about you! We spent your 12th birthday in Marshalltown at state swimming. More on that later...

You completed your first year of middle school at Roosevelt and it was a great one. In fact, we're headed to an awards ceremony next week to honor you for getting gold honor roll 3 trimesters in a row. That means straight A's the entire school year. It was your first experience with real grades and I'd say you knocked it out of the park. You loved your science and social studies teachers and tolerated math and ELA. You were the student council secretary (only 6th grader with a position on the student council), in debate club, garden club, ultimate frisbee, chess, euchre (even though I'm not sure what they taught you), and many  more that I'm probably forgetting. Dad and I are so proud that you jumped in and got involved right away. You also made TONS of friends. Where to sit at lunch was your biggest struggle because you had so many options. One of your goals was to be Raptor Rave and you accomplished that in the month of March.

Now onto your activities....there are a lot. You played flag football last fall and didn't really enjoy it, but we are glad you gave it a shot. You played DSC soccer for the whole year and had a great year. There is a great group of kids on your team and you love Coach Matt. He yells "Hoden" about 25 times a game, but being a coach myself, I know that's a good thing! You play defense and your goal this year is to be all time center D or offensive center D (both of which I have no idea what they are). Last winter, you swam again for the Dolphins. You had a great year and even qualified as an 11 year old in the 11/12 division for state in a relay.  You are a work horse in the pool. Other kids are better than you, but nobody works harder than you.

Other things you love....First and foremost is your puppy Jasper. You loved Chloe so I knew you'd love another dog, but I had no idea how much. You and your sisters are obsessed with him. You would prefer if he wouldn't be wanting to play the second you got home from school, but being in the crate all day makes him have lots of energy! We're getting closer and closer to letting him sleep with you. He hasn't puked in a couple months in the middle of the night so hopefully that means his stomach is getting a bit stronger. You also love history, Norse mythology, are a voracious reader...you read the entire Harry Potter series in less than a month, the Vikings, watching The Office, playing Fortnite, researching things on the computer, gardening, playing tennis and much more.

You are an awesome kid. We are so thankful that you're ours and we can't wait to see what your future holds. Keep being kind to everyone and the rest will fall into place.

Love you bud,
Mom

March 3rd, 2007


March 3rd, 2008


March 3rd, 2009


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March 3rd, 2011


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March 3rd, 2013


March 3rd, 2014


March 3rd, 2015


March 3rd, 2016


March 3rd, 2017


March 3rd, 2018 (btw...he was very worried about this photo...he knew he couldn't hold up 11 fingers so he didn't know what we would do!)


March 3rd, 2019

Happy (very late)Birthday Ivy!

Dear Ivy babes-

I want to start by telling you that this post has been on my to-do list since November 10th!! I just have not gotten the chance to sit down and write it. Blogging has not been a priority the last couple years, but I need to keep up on the birthday posts at least! Here's what has been going on for you this last year.

You had a great birthday. It fell on a Sunday this year so we were able to celebrate it on your actual birthday! Olivia, Grace and Grady came down for a sleepover and they were able to go to your party too! We had it at All Around Gymnastics and you had 7 friends plus your 3 cousins. Your friends were Katelyn, Maddi, Gwen, Charlotte and Vera from the neighborhood, Audrey Errthum and Kylee, your friend from school. You all had a great time running around and trying out all of the equipment!

You are still our happy kiddo. You are in a good mood 99% of the time and we can't help but smile when we are around you. You are loving 1st grade. Mrs. Clothier is your teacher and she is wonderful. You love riding the bus and sit with either Charlotte or Myles each day.

Right now you are in swimming and hip hop. Yesterday you had your break through swim meet. You were assigned the butterfly in the 100 medley relay and we had no idea that you could do it! When you dove in, you were amazing! I sooooo wish I had it on video. You also did so well on the 50 back and 25 free. We are so proud of how far you've come in a year. Your biggest accomplishment has been doing no-breathers on your 25 free. The king sized candy bar is good motivation:)

You are 55 pounds and 47 inches, size 12 shoes and you're wearing mostly size 8 clothes. It's working out great because you and Mya are basically in the same size clothes so you can share! You are very social and love being around your friends. Disney World was super fun because you did all the rides...even Everest! You are a good little skier even though you're pretty timid the first couple times down. You are starting to read chapter books on your own and you love coming home with a new one from the school library. I can tell you are one of the leaders in your class. When I volunteer on Thursday mornings you're always running errands for the teacher or taking someone to the nurse. You do not like eating breakfast...lately I've been able to get you to eat a piece of plain cinnamon bread. I think it would be so much better toasted with butter, but you prefer it plain! You eat lunch at school about 50% of the time. Your favorite meal at home is meatballs and rice. You still don't drink milk and eat very little cheese. But ice cream and yogurt are two of your favorite things. You have lost 4 teeth total, but have 2 more loose right now. You are still my kid who will sleep in on the weekends. You wake up on your own about once a week for school and the other days I have to get you up and carry you out to the kitchen for breakfast!

I could probably write about you for another page or two, but I'll finish up. We are so lucky to be your parents. You are such a joy to our whole family. Love you a ton Baby Ivy!

Mom

11/11/11


11/11/12


11/11/13


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11/11/15



11/11/16

 

11/11/17

11/11/18

Happy 10th Birthday Mya!

Dear Miss Mya Pat,

Happy Birthday a week and a half late! This last week or so has been a bit crazy around here so that’s why I’m late with your post. You had a great birthday. Started it with gymnastics from 9-1. When I went to pick you up, you said you loved it and everyone was saying Happy Birthday to you all day! I told you that’s what it would be like if you had your birthday in the school year! At 3:00, we picked up Katie, Kalissa, Lilllian and Kaylee and we went to the country club pool for a couple hours. After swimming, we went to our house and ate Happy Joe’s taco pizza, you did slime, jumped on the trampoline, ate cake and we took them home. It was a fun day!

The bigger news this week…even bigger than your birthday according to you, was that we got a puppy! Jasper Lu Hoden joined our family on Friday July 20th, and you were by far the most excited person in our family! You picked this puppy and so far…8 days in, you picked really well😊  Before we got him, we called him teal puppy (teal is your favorite color) because that’s what color his collar was at Rose’s place. He really was an awesome dog when we went to pick a puppy and he’s doing awesome with us! 

Now, let’s talk about you! Right now you are in gymnastics 4 mornings a week for 4 hours each day. I always think it’s too long, but you don’t complain at all! You’re competing level 4, but working on other skills as well. You are on a break from soccer right now, but will start up in mid-August and you’ll be on the U11/U12 team. I’m not sure how much you’ll play this fall because of gymnastics competitions, but it will be good to get back on the field! You are also getting pretty good at swimming this summer. You can do 3 out of 4 strokes and love to race people in the pool. You also went to Camp DuNord with Olivia, Grace, Grady and Amanda this summer for a week on your own! You did great...loved every minute of it and only missed us a few minutes each night when you went to sleep. I'm so proud of you for going that far away from home and doing so well! It helps that Olivia is your best friend..you two are amazing together. Amanda said you were together non-stop for a week straight and there was never a problem. 

You are sleeping downstairs these days in our unfinished guest room. Your room upstairs was too bright and you were waking up way too early. You have lots and lots of ideas of how you want your room to look. You love looking for beds, desks, rugs, etc. online. We’ll try to get that room finished this fall. When you grow up, you want to be an interior designer and I can totally see it coming true! You have even looked up where to go to school for this. Right now it looks like Iowa State has the best program. I'd be okay if you went to Iowa State! 

You are excited about being in 5^th grade! Your teacher is Mrs. Sanchez, who wasn’t your first choice, but you have some friends in your class that you’re happy about. I think you’ll try volleyball this winter instead of basketball which will be fun! You are 50 inches tall and about 55 pounds of muscle. You wear size 7/8 clothes, size 13/1 shoes, your hair is super long, you started the summer only wanting to wear one piece swim suits and have switched now to only wanting two piece. 

We were at the lake this past week and you loved being on the jet ski and tubing. We tried water skiing and you got up, but didn’t last too long. You did not enjoy skiing, but daddy and I are really hoping you give it another try because it can be so much fun! We stopped in Decorah on the way home and you and Olivia ran the Elvelopet  5k for the first time! You ran it in 28 minutes which is just awesome!  We sure love being your parents Mya. We love watching you do things you love!

Love you so much My-My!

Mom

                                                                      July 18th, 2008

July 18th, 2009

July 18th, 2010

July 18th, 2011

July 18th, 2012

July 18th, 2013

July 18th, 2014

July 18th, 2015

July 18th, 2016

July 18th, 2017

July 18th, 2018

The road to our new puppy!

As of Saturday, we have a puppy picked and ready to pick up July 20th! We are all pretty excited...some more than others, but we can all definitely agree it's time to add a puppy to our family again! I wanted to write out how this all came to be before I forget.

We decided about a year ago that spring/summer 2018 would be a good time to get a dog. We knew we wanted a non-shedding dog this time around, and we met our neighbor's dog Nala, a Goldendoodle, right after we moved here and fell in love with her. On my birthday in March, I called a place close to us called Galena Goldendoodles to see what they had available. She talked me into bringing everyone out to her house to check out the puppies that had already been reserved. Chris's parents and brother were here, so they got to go too! We had a lovely time playing with the puppies and getting to know all of her dogs. They were wonderful. We put $100 down to get a spot on her list for the next litter. We found out then that she was only going to have one litter this summer and that we were 7th on the list. It would be the mama dog's (Lulu) first litter, which normally means she wouldn't have a lot of puppies.

Fast forward a few weeks and a friend of a friend contacted me and said she was going to breed her Goldendoodle this spring and asked if we wanted one. We would be 2nd on her list so we knew we'd have better chances of getting one and also getting a female, which is what we wanted. So we put the $100 deposit on that puppy as well, but kept our name on the Galena list because the money was non-refundable anyway. Ended up that the two mama dogs were due within a few days of each other! About a week before the puppies were supposed to be born, I got a text from 2nd place saying that her dog Evie had lost the puppies. They had an ultrasound at the halfway mark and everything was okay, but sometime after that, she lost the puppies. Our kids were devastated.

A few days after that, I got a note from Rose at Galena Goldendoodles that Lulu had her puppies. She had 5 male and 1 female. The good news is that we were 3rd on the list now...4 ahead of us decided to wait for the next litter for whatever reason. That still didn't make us super happy because we wanted a female and we knew with the 3rd pick, we would probably not get one. We had to put $250 down when the puppies were born to stay on the list. That was refundable so we just decided to give the money just in case we ended up going with one of Lulu's puppies. In the meantime Chris was up in Decorah and was out with my parents one night and saw an 8 week old Goldendoodle. He asked about her and they said there was one female left in the litter and was ready to go home anytime! I drove up to Decorah to go look at her the next day. We ended up deciding against her because she was an F1 (first generation...cross between a golden retriever and a standard poodle) so her chances of shedding were pretty high. She was also going to be a big dog and we were hoping to stay in the 30-40 pound range.

So we just waited...waited patiently to go meet Lulu's puppies at 4 weeks and then wait 2 more weeks for the two families in front of us to pick! On July 4th we went out to Rose's to pick two dogs. July 7th was the actual pick day, but Max was not going to be home so we went early and picked two. Then depending on what the other family decided, we would still get one of our top two picks. The first family picked the runt of the litter...a tiny male that was adorable. The kids fell in love with two male dogs when we were there...orange collar and teal collar. Orange was a bit nuts for me...he was crazy! Jumping all over, eating the rug, super curious, but also super loving. I just didn't think I had it in me to have a crazy dog who needed a lot of exercise and attention when our lives are so busy. Teal dog was beautiful and very playful, but also very calm. Mya had him asleep in her arms in multiple ways and he just seemed to go with the flow. The female was more standoff-ish and more high maintenance from both Rose's description and what we observed. She didn't like to be held, was fidgety, etc. We left her place and the kids were dead set on one of the males.

We decided that our top pick would be teal collar dog and second pick would be the female. If the other family took one of those, we'd take the other. Last Saturday Rose called and said that the other family took the green collar puppy so we could have either of our two choices! After all of this, we were going to end up getting an opportunity to get a female, but we decided to get Teal collared puppy!  He really was the BEST dog and we are so excited to add him to our family. He will probably be on the bigger side of the range (hoping still under 50 pounds) but with the schedule we keep, we really needed a go with the flow dog who would be adaptable, independent and playful with anyone! Stay tuned for lots of pics!!