August 2019- Getting Ready for School

Although Arizona starts school at the beginning of August, and most of the grades here start a few weeks in, Otto wasn't to start Kindergarten until almost the end of this month. So, we spent the month preparing to go back to school and sucking every opportunity for last minute Summer fun.
I have very little free time, but when I did, I spent it researching Master's programs and planning for my future. I suppose I had a tiny mid-life crisis of wanting to know "what comes next" when the twins are old enough to start school. So, I wanted to at least have a 5 year plan in place to advance my career (what career?) in some way, shape or form.
What I decided was two things: 1) it is perfectly okay if I don't have it figured out yet because I don't have time to start school now anyway and I am happy to cherish these years with my little ones while they are still so little. 2) I will need money to go back to school an earn a degree.
So, I started at the basics of what I love to do: teaching and art. I began networking and promoting around the community for art lessons starting next month. I was a little surprised and very delighted to have 6 art students signed up and 2 tutoring students by the deadline!

Otto prepared for his first school year in public education, kindergarten. We registered, filled out paperwork, downloaded the apps, met the teacher, and scheduled our conference/kindergarten assessments. His teacher was impressed with his reading ability but we have some work to do on his writing skills. Every student has strengths and weaknesses and although Otto is brilliant and soaks up knowledge like sponge, he can use practice at following directions and staying on task. Kindergarten is going to be the perfect place for him to learn and grow! He is so excited to start.

Vincent and Atticus practice their crawling skills. Vincent begins to pull himself up to standing on the couch, chairs, toys, stairs, my knee, anything! He loves to pull his bum in the air and peek under his tummy between his legs. He has yet to take a step when standing on his own. He will gladly walk with me, holding my hands, all day long.
Atticus has very high tone muscles which make it hard for him to bend both knees and take steps. He was slow to advance from tummy scooting to bended knee crawling. Now he struggles to get one foot on the ground from his knees so he can stand up. He works on it every day at playtime and every other week with the OT.
We spent time in the baby play area at the Curiosity museum so they could use the soft padded ground, mirrors, and bars to play.
Otto won't have much time to visit the museums when he starts school, so he played hard and loud with friends as we made this our last hurrah for the Summer!

Matt took Otto fishing at the Grandpa's Pond in South Jordan while I took the little boys for a walk on the Jordan River Trail. I love to see the backside of the huge houses built right alongside the trail. I caught up on my audiobook of The Scarlet Pimpernel while walking along the river and letting the boys nap. We caught the attention of a horse in her pasture and  she came up to the fence to say hello. Then, she ran alongside us as we continued to walk. I remember seeing a deer in a field nearby just a few years ago when I was walking Otto in a stroller.

Matt continues to work hard at work hard, getting top performer awards (from April) at his company. His favorite projects at home are his Honda XR dirt bike that he has reseated the valve journal. Replacing the piston and piston rings and fixing the coil on the cam chain tensioner has been his Friday night date for several weeks. He sold a 3 wheeler and Suzuki at the beginning of the month to make room in the garage for his tools and dirtbike.

If Friday nights are Matt's "Night Off" from home and work duties to work on his projects, he gives me Thursday nights off too. I often have book club or a girl's night out, but when I don't, I take my bike out for a bike ride or stay locked in my room for a "Spa Night" by myself.

Early in the month, we were invited to Otto's cousin's 8th birthday party which followed with his baptism the following week. We were so glad and lucky that many from Otto's birth family had travelled to celebrate. We enjoyed seeing cousins and aunts and uncles again.














The month was packed with visits, birthday parties, and Saturdays at the Farmer's Market. The local neighborhood market is every week just 2 blocks away and we love to spend the morning picking out artisan bread, some local produce, and possibly a shaved ice if it is hot. It is always hot. They have live music playing and vendors selling their hand-made crafts.

Otto's classmate from last year invited us to his sister's birthday party at the park. We frequent this same park on a regular basis, but on this occasion we had many friends to play with and Moana showed up to entertain the guests. I don't cry often, but some specific things are sure to get me choked up with tears. One of those things is little kids seeing Disney characters in real life.






We travelled North and back quite a lot this month for visits with Grandma and Grandpa and Nana Rasmussen's birthday.

As the month closed, we laid out a carefully picked-out outfit, read a Kindergarten countdown book, and prepared to wake up a bright-eyed Kindergartener! We walked him to his first day, crowded with other kids and many other Kindergarten moms. He saw his best buddy, Frankie, who is also in his class! The teacher came to collect them outside the doors and away they went!



















His first day of school also coincided with the last day of swim lessons for Summer. Otto graduated from his Glider 1 class to Glider 2 just as we were finishing  his lessons for the year. We plan to enroll him in another week long jump start during Winter months to refresh his skills. He was so proud to be able to do a back float, turn over, swim to the side, and hold his breath underwater for 10 seconds! In Glider 2 they practiced swimming the short length of the pool.


Otto was very excited to tell me about his first day when I picked him up. It had been a quiet afternoon without him, but we had time to play at home and practice those walking skills.

While the twins get more mobile and quicker with crawling, we have had to up our baby proofing game and switch out all the lower shelves to fun toys and puzzles. We covered every outlet and put away ever breakable and covered many cords and wires. Vincent loves to pull himself up and reach for anything that looks interesting. Atticus loves to lick, eat, pick up, shake, and open and close every door. It is new territory for us since Otto wasn't a baby that would put everything in his mouth and didn't need to be told "no" many times before moving on to explore safer things. These two boys seem quite determined to only explore things that are dangerous (or messy)! They definitely know how to work together to cause trouble.

We are going to be so grateful for all the time we spend outdoors before the weather cools. Trips to the park, walks around the lake, eating outside on the back patio, lathering on the sunscreen, and getting dirty in the sand are some of our favorite memories from this month. I will look back on these pictures with warm thoughts when Winter has us cooped up inside under a blanket!

To help me prepare for upcoming art lessons, we got out the paints and had ourselves an art moment. I would like to say we do this every single day, but it is a mess and effort I can only afford every once and a while on our schedule. I let Otto do some painting with his very own paints and the babies did their worst to a paper and paint in a zip lock bag. They enjoyed the rustle of the bag more than the actual squishy paint, but it created some unique masterpieces we can admire on the wall for a while.









On the last weekend of the month, we arranged to update family pictures on both sides of our families. The pictures on their walls have not been updated in quite a number of years, not to mention that we, ourselves have never had a professional family photo session. It was past due!
We contacted a local photographer from a trusted friend and arranged to meet at SaltAir. With the sun setting, and our outfits carefully picked out, we took some amazing photos that I will be proud to hang on my wall!
Most importantly, we were able to capture the love and beauty I feel for our darling little family.

July 2019- Celebrating life

After much consideration on a family vacation this year, we settled on the most practical of locations with 3 young children (two of which don't even walk yet) and decided to stay at home. Matt took a week off in July and we planned every day filled with fun local activities that the kids would enjoy. Matt took Otto fishing along the Jordan River as I took the babies on a walk along the trail.
We walked and dined at Gardner Village.
We had a quick visit from the Colorado Millar family (Otto's aunt and uncle and cousin Jonas).
Then, we spent the rest of the week with family in Brigham City to celebrate the 4th of July with good ol' traditions.
After having caught a horrendous cold around Father's Day last month, I tried my best to rest but our constant on-the-go activities made it hard to let any time to sit. I kept tissues close at hand, took cold medicine and allergy medicine interchangeable, and a tube of chapstick in my back pocket and soldiered on!
The Rasmussen clan always get a campsite at the Box Elder campgrounds. For Otto and Matt, this means fishing with Grandpa and Micheal Jr. at the reservoir.
For me, this meant struggling to keep two babies clean and dry and fed in the great outdoors and finding them a suitable place for naps in the RV. I will be honest, this does not create a recipe for a very relaxing time. It was some consolation to be fed delicious food from dutch oven and campfire cooking and putting together s'mores dessert.
We took some short hiking trips around the campgrounds. While the babies napped, Matt and I were able to slip away for a quick ride on the quad to doc's flat and back.
Matt and Micheal Jr took opportunities to take more rides on the quads whenever possible.













Matt and Otto tried out his old tent and had a night of "true" camping next to the RV. Poor Matt got not a wink of sleep!

Otto was nervous about sleeping in the tent after stories of Yeti and Big Foot (thanks to me), but I think he had a great time.

Matt had pulled a muscle in his back which inflamed and pinched a nerve. This kept him out of work and out of all lifting and helping for a whole week after our vacation. He had to lie on his back, go to physical therapy, and try to work his way back to returning to work.








We played with new toys from birthday gifts and tried out the sprinklers in the backyard. As cold as the hose water is, both boys loved their little pool and never wanted to get out.
We mistakenly arranged to have the pets' vet appointment while I had the kids by myself. Two hours in the vet office with 3 little kids that are hungry and tired, a whiny dog, and a mewing old cat was a bit stressful. There are not enough Disney songs and battery life on my phone to get us through that experience easily!




In June, my dear aunt Linda suddenly lost a battle with ALS, of which we had every reason to believe she was fighting quite well. I had made an effort to see her once a month for lunch dates before the babies where born, but I had only made it once to see her after they were born. I was devastated to know that I wouldn't have the chance to make up for those lost visits and time. I truly loved every visit with her since childhood. She was more like a good friend than family, which can sometimes be even closer. As a teenager, I would go to her house for little weekend visits and she would take me out shopping and to lunch. She loved to chat and socialize just as much as I do. Now, I constantly think of questions to ask her or stories to tell her and feel sad all over again that I can't arrange our next visit.
Unfortunately, her memorial service was scheduled the same night as our tickets to see Hugh Jackman! Since our whole family had had tickets since Christmas, we were so torn about what to do! The service was to start before the concert, so planned to duck out a bit early. My parents stayed, but Megan and Coltan and I had to excuse ourselves. I really hated to do that because I wanted so much to stay and pay my respects as well as see family. The event was mostly a lively affair, for that is how my Aunt Linda lived her life. Upon request, she had a taco truck in the parking lot! Her son, Todd, was perfect person to lighten the mood conducting the program. I heard later that it was a wonderful tribute by everyone in attendance.
I only felt okay about leaving because I could almost hear Aunt Linda saying, "You have tickets to Hugh Jackman! Go!"

The concert was an incredible show. He is definitely THE showman. We had a wonderful time. Keala Settle was a special guest and sang her heart out! I laughed, I honestly cried, and felt a warm fuzzy feeling of connection and soul within the stadium that night.

We did our best to pack in as many fun Summer activities we could manage into the rest of this month. We went to Thanksgiving Point Curiosity Museum. The baby play zones are just the perfect place for the boys to practice their crawling and pulling up skills. Vincent is beginning to pull up on low-to-the-ground objects and reaching for the couch cushions. Atticus will stand with some help holding my hands, but he doesn't like it.


























Matt wanted to find ways for us to spend more time as a family, so he did some buying and selling to get us all our own bikes. Otto had one for his birthday, Matt found a used beach cruiser for me, and he bought a bike tall enough for his own long legs. He worked very hard finding just the perfect bike trailer that could hold the twins and also transform into a stroller if we ride to the market. How is it that a family with only 3 bike riders already has a garage with 7 or 8 bikes and trikes in it?




We spent another weekend in Brigham City to relax and attend a friend's birthday party. The gathering of friends we've known for 20+ years can be a remedy for some high stress and worn out souls like ours. These past few months have been hard on us and emotional, so we were grateful for some distraction and some fun.

The babies often take a lot of time and attention and we try and let Otto have a later bed time some nights to do a special activity with mom and dad. We roasted marshmallows one evening, although our fire pit isn't the best for this. We still enjoyed a quiet evening just us 3 on our back patio!


















I tried to get the kids out on walks and park playdates as often as possible when the weather permitted. Now that the thunderstorms were less, we just had to beat the heat. Family bike rides on Saturdays and Sundays, trips to the Farmer's Market, and trying out the splash pool.
Otto continued to get better every week during swim lessons.

I took Otto on a special Mommy and Otto date to see Peter Pan at the Ogden Peery's Egyptian Theater starring some of our favorite people. Otto just finished reading Peter Pan, so he was loving every minute of the magic of this great show! He clapped for the fairies and he loved Tiger Lily the best. We were able to watch it in the company of his Grandma Carolyn and his Aunt Lori and his cousins.

This month was so crazy busy, we are crashed out!