Thanksgiving break

We didn't do a lot this break besides just catching up on sleep. On Thursday we all went over to our god-family's house and the adults all went to watch "Instant Family" in theaters (Except Dad, he was sick) The kids (I was in charge as the oldest) built gingerbread houses and watched "Arthur Christmas," and then some baking show I can't remember the name of. I made instant friends with their grandparent's beagle and he spent most of the films stretched out across mine and my little god-sister's lap.

On Saturday we decorated the Christmas Tree which was really fun. We used the fake tree this year and put so many ornaments on it I don't know how it's still standing. I got kicked out halfway through the tree-building process so I just watched Kylie, Beth, Eva, and Laura make an assembly line out of putting together the tree. Eva and Laura "fluffed" the branches and gave them to Kylie, who clicked them into place. She then rotated the tree and Beth fixed the gaps in the leaves where you could see to the middle.

(What happens when I leave the computer alone)
Wow Megan your grammar sucks. -Kylie. You're so dramatic. We didn't kick you out, and you didn't make "instant friends" with the beagle. He laid down on Noelle's lap and you were just sitting next to her. You take after Mom. -Beth.

Happy Birthday Eva Grace!!!

http://laneyandrob.blogspot.com/2011/11/happy-birthday-eva.html
Happy Birthday!

You are such a smart girl and we're all super proud of you! It's been super cool seeing you grow up and learn new stuff. I love hearing the stories you and Laura make up as you play Barbies with each other. I can't really repeat the story of your birth as I wasn't really there; but I know your name could've been Stuart. 

Have an amazing birthday Eva!

7 years later- "Through My Children's Eyes"

From January 3, 2011: "We did this two years ago and Megan discovered it while reading through our 2009 blog book. We decided it would be fun to see how different the answers are now :)" 
http://laneyandrob.blogspot.com/2011/01/through-my-childrens-eyes-revisited.html

Questionnaire (7 years later):

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Megan: To not fail my classes
Kylie: Don't burn the house down
Beth: That she loves me
Jack: I love you
Eva: Go to sleep, princess
Laura: I love you

2. What makes mom happy?

Megan: When we give her hugs

Kylie: When we get good grades

Beth: When she gets to spend time with friends or family

Jack: Doing what she says and what Dad says

Eva: Doing chores when we're supposed to

Laura: Napping with me

3. What makes mom sad?

Megan: When Kylie doesn't clean her part of the room

Kylie: When she's tired and we're fighting

Beth: When things don't work out

Jack: Us fighting each other

Eva: Losing jobs and us getting bad grades

Laura: I don't know

4. How does your mom make you laugh?

Megan: By making jokes

Kylie: Making jokes

Beth: By teasing us

Jack: Puns

Eva: Joking

Laura: By telling me funny things

5. What was your mom like as a child?

Megan: Very smart

Kylie: Hardworking

Beth: She looked like Megan and was very smart

Jack: Sad

Eva: She was very stressed

Laura: She has brown hair and it goes down really far and that's what she look like

6. How old is your mom?

Megan: 40

Kylie: Mom's 40, right?

Beth: 40

Jack: 40?

Eva: I think she's 41 or 1 lower than 41 or 41.

Laura: I don't know

7. How tall is your mom?

Megan: Taller than I will ever be

Kylie: She's 5'10"

Beth: 6'0

Jack: As tall as my mom is

Eva: Lower than the curtain but almost to the top of the curtain

Laura: 7 feet?

8. What is her favorite thing to do?

Megan: Make people happy

Kylie: Probably sleep

Beth: Spend time with friends and family

Jack: Spend time with her wonderful son

Eva: Spend time with us and also bake with us

Laura: Play with Evie (Eva) and me

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?

Megan: Probably sleep

Kylie: Work or sleep

Beth: Work or School

Jack: Sleep

Eva: Work and maybe sleep

Laura: She miss me so much

10. If your mom is on TV for something, what will it be for?

Megan: For her therapist job

Kylie: Therapist stuff

Beth: For giving a speech on Therapist stuff

Jack: Surviving all her heart failure and back crap

Eva: Baking and to keep your body healthy and stuff and doing work

Laura: News since she likes news

11. What is your mom really good at?

Megan: Being a therapist

Kylie: Persevering, Determination

Beth: Making time for all of us

Jack: Living

Eva: Baking and being a therapist

Laura: Walking in high heels

12. What is your mom not very good at?

Megan: I do not know

Kylie: Keeping her cool when we make her angry

Beth: Anything she doesn't like

Jack: Dying

Eva: Doing kitty litter and she's also bad at cleaning now because of her heart

Laura: Staying awake

13. What does your mom do for a job?

Megan: Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

Kylie: Marriage Therapist

Beth: Family and Marriage therapist

Jack: Therapy

Eva: Therapist

Laura: Business

14. What is your mom's favorite food?

Megan: Those red ice cream thingies from Dairy Queen (I think they're called dilly bars)

Kylie: Lobster or anything seafood, really

Beth: Mike'n'Ikes

Jack: Mostly fruit candy

Eva: Salad

Laura: Chicken

15. What makes you proud of your mom?

Megan: That she was able to accomplish what she wanted to do

Kylie: She can basically do anything

Beth: She can balance work, school, doctor appointments, and friends and family

Jack: She gave birth to me

Eva: Doing her job even though she has heart surgeries

Laura: When she gives us paper

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?

Megan: I don't really watch cartoons anymore, but if it was anime, she would be the mother from Wolf Children.

Kylie: I agree with Megan

Beth: Wonder Woman from the animated series (P.S Megan does watch cartoons)

Jack: A mom

Eva: The queen from "Mia and Me"

Laura: The mom that marries The Greatest Showman
(Eva said that if this was about me, I would be Candy from Glitter Force. "She's the tiny little bear that never shuts up")

17. What do you and your mom do together?

Megan: Talk

Kylie: We go swimming during the summer

Beth: Anything, really

Jack: Mother and Son things

Eva: We go to stores 

Laura: We nap

18. How are you and your mom the same?

Megan: We kinda look the same

Kylie: Similar hair

Beth: I can not answer this without insulting mom or sounding narcissistic 

Jack: We're both tan

Eva: We both have the same hair

Laura: We both have the same eyes

19. How are you and your mom different?

Megan: She's really smart

Kylie: She can actually handle people complaining to her

Beth: We look very different 

Jack: She's a woman

Eva: She's older than me

Laura: We don't have the same hair color

20. How do you know your mom loves you?

Megan: She tells me a lot 

Kylie: She pushes herself to spend time with us

Beth: She works spending time with us into her schedule

Jack: She pushes herself to go to work for us

Eva: She gives me shelter and food and clothing

Laura: Because I'm one of her kids

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?

Megan: Home

Kylie: Probably home

Beth: To The Cheesecake Factory with dad

Jack: Sleep

Eva: The salon and she likes to go with us and also to Dairy Queen and also to Mrs. Jojo's and also to the Cinnamon Roll Factory (Cheesecake Factory)

Laura: She likes to go home

Love you Mom! :) <3

Hi

My mom is usually really busy with work and now college since she's getting her doctorate in Marriage and Family Therapy. I don't remember exactly why she asked me to take over her blog, but I've been struggling with what to post for a year or two. I finally decided on a revisit of "Through My Children's Eyes" but Laura went upstairs to go take a nap with my parents before I finished so that's still unpublished.

So here's an update on us (Kinda like a Christmas Letter but in November)

I cannot summarize these last 2 or 3 years because I have a bad memory. I went into online school for 8th and 9th grade but decided to go back to public school for the rest of High School. I think that was one of my best decisions since I feel like it's made me mature a bit and also have the chance to make new friends since I lost contact with most of them during online school. Kylie's also going to school with me which is pretty nice.

Megan (me) is now 16 (I want to go back to being 5) and is a junior in high school. I'm taking an AP art class and I'm really enjoying it so far. My hobbies include eating food and sleeping. I've gotten into anime now and I think I've watched at least 50. Christmas hasn't come yet, but I guess one of my favorite gifts was a secretary desk, which I tried to bring up the stairs myself. That resulted in me getting stuck halfway up the stairs and me yelling for help until Beth came and called me an idiot, then brought it up almost by herself (proving she is way stronger than me) The desk is pretty nice though, it was my mom's first desk. My favorite thing about this year was probably getting to go on a church trip to Nauvoo, Illinois with Kylie and Beth. I made a lot of friends and became better friends with others.

Kylie is 14 and a freshman in high school. She's doing really well and has been called out by a lot of her teacher for her good grades. She's made a lot of friends and is now taller than me. Kylie's also into anime (she's the one that got me into it) and has watched 70+. I swear she listens to music 24/7 and she can list any song off any of her playlists within 5 seconds. She no longer likes pink and has gone full-out tomboy, wearing only t-shirts and basketball shorts except when she has to wear a skirt to church. Kylie likes roleplaying and is usually the "Dungeon Master," making up a gazillion new ideas of worlds and characters.
Me: Hey Kylie, what was your favorite part about this year?
Kylie: Nothing.

Beth, sarcastic as ever, is now 12 and in 7th grade. She's in Pre-AP classes and likes drawing. She still loves reading and has a phone now so she reads almost everywhere. Her favorite series are Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Maze Runner, and Magnus Chase. She still loves purple and Aunt Kiki but has no longer decided to be a doctor. She's looking into writing and photography as possible careers and is already saving for college.

Jack is 11 and in 6th grade. He's still a dork but taller now. He resembles me a lot but is very much extroverted. I'm pretty sure the "League of Incredible Spies" from 3rd grade has disbanded but he's still friends with some of the people in that group. He likes Voltron: Legendary Defender and me, him, and Kylie geek about it frequently. Jack isn't into Pokémon, Animal Jam, or Rift as much but he likes other games that I don't know the name of.

Eva is 7, almost 8, and is like an exact copy of Beth. She's very sarcastic and has roasted everyone in our family at least once (except Beth I think.) She and Laura are best friends and they like to play Barbies. Listening into their games is very entertaining as it usually involves stuff like roof-jumping, tigers, and death; though I'm pretty sure me and Kylie were the exact same way. Eva usually gets all A's and I'm pretty sure she's never gotten a B or below, even though she's only in 2nd grade.

(After reading the story about how Eva was born)

Eva: "Wow I almost died!"

Me: "Yep."

Eva: "Would you have a different sibling instead of me?"

Me: "Nope, I wouldn't replace you for the world."

Eva: "Well, I would have another sibling instead of you!"

Laura is 6, in kindergarten, and super sweet. Whenever she's upset, she usually just cuddles with either me or Kylie. She's made a lot of friends already and enjoys telling us about her days at school, even though they usually aren't 100% accurate. I think she's the one that's taken after me the most, but only time will tell. Her and Eva are very independent and insist on making food for themselves which is usually Nutella-loaded sandwiches.

My dad is still working at Fidelity Investments, but I don't know what kind of job he does. I think it's something with math. Anyway, he's stopped playing Rift as much since he "beat the game" and is trying to find different MMORPGs that were just as good as Rift. He still goes over to Dan's to watch boxing.

My mom still works at the same place but now runs 3 businesses, helped publish a book, and is getting her doctorate. She got surgery a couple months ago but is doing pretty good for having heart failure. I'm really proud of her for being able to accomplish everything even with her heart issues. I'm super thankful she survived and hope she only gets better as time goes by.