Ninjas, buffaloes and A Grad Student

We've had birthdays, anniversaries, funerals, vacations, and now we are gearing up for the kids to go back to school.

Started the year with Marisa's birthday.  She took a quick trip to Finland for work and had a great time while learning about the forestry business.  Then we were off to Palm Springs, CA to see Granny and Papaw.  Everyone had a great time swimming and seeing the sites.  The kids even got to see the ocean for the first time.

In early March, Marisa's grandpa passed away.  We were sad to loose him but know that he is pain free and with our Lord.

After a long month in the hospital, Jason's dad passed away on Easter Day.  While this was and still is hard on the family we know that he is in heaven with our Lord.

The kids were excited to be done with school for the summer.  Alik's birthday came quickly.  He wanted a Ninja Lego birthday so Marisa scoured the many pins out there on Pinterest to find great ideas.  We had ninja headbands for each of he kids, fushi (fake sushi), awesome cupcakes from LiveLoveBake, Lego car races and Ninja star decorating and throwing practice.  All the kids had fun, big and little!

Then we were off to the Black Hills in South Dakota.  We saw it all.  Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Spearfish Hatchery, Spearfish Canyon, Jewel Cave, Custer State Park and Reptile Gardens.  It was a great time to get away and just hang out as a family.

Jason has been traveling quite a little with work.  Usually his exotic destinations include Waterloo, IA and Moline, IL.  However, he did do a week in Mexico this year as well.  He stays busy and still enjoys his job.

Marisa finished the last class in her Master's program.  The professor said she got an 'A', however, we are still waiting for the school to post the grade and send the diploma!

Kids start school in a little over a week and are excited to go back.

We hope all is well with you and your family!

We MOVED!

Thanks to some AWESOME friends and family we MOVED!  Seriously.  We picked out the house but some great people helped us load and unload all of our junk...I mean treasures.  Why did we move?  More space.  If I'm going to be outnumbered I should at least have some space.  All the boys are loving it.  I'm loving it.  It's great!

Both kids are in school.  Alik is in first grade, Misha is in preschool.  They both love school.  SHHH don't tell them that mom did not love school.  Hopefully this will be the best kept secret.  Misha tells us each time he comes home about his adventures in preschool.  Alik is learning about spelling, technology and all different kinds of artists.

Jason is gearing up (literally) for hunting season.  I sure some deer some where will be located in my freezer within the next 4 months.  He is still traveling some.  Mostly trips out to the local factories.  Marisa and the kids miss him while he is gone but try to send him off with enough hugs and kisses to get him through.  Jason is also helping out with games on Sunday night during the weekly kids church program.  He is looking forward to spending that time with the kids....And Marisa is looking forward to a quite house!

Marisa is still studying for her master's.  She is in her second to last class (finally!!!).  Keeping up with kids, hubby, and house is enough for her.

We readopted the kids!  It is not as complicated or dramatic as it sounds.  It was our nice day in court.  Our family came.  The judge was great and even let us take pictures!  It was not required but something we choose to do so we could celebrate our forever family.

Arrrgggghhhhh, Misha turned a whopping 5 with a Pirate Party.  Nobody had to walk the plank but there were several scallywags that tried to steal the captain's treasure.  With a pizza as a treasure map and a roaming granny clue the treasure was challenge to locate.  But all had fun.

Marisa put a whole pile of pix out on Picasa and maybe when Marisa gets done with class we'll get better at updating the blog.

I got in trouble.....again

Most of you have figured out how this works.  I post something and then you don't hear from us again until I get yelled at.  Well you can all thank Julie.  She not only yelled at me, but she also gave me "the look".

We left off at trains and reptiles....Misha's birthday.  I have to say the Iowa Reptile Rescue and the people that work there are AMAZING.  Check out the pix.

Then it was more travel for Jason.  Off to exciting Thibedeau, Louisianna.

Christmas brought excitement, dancing (Misha jumping up and down and around going "It's Christmas! It's Christmas! - that was the day after Thanksgiving), sickness and travel.  All of us had a great Christmas.  We tried hard to remind the kids the true reason for the season.

In January Marisa was off to India again.  She was there over a weekend and was able to see a little more of the country then she did last time.  It was amazing.  The trip was great and she's thinking about going back again this year.

Jason continued to travel throughout January, February and March.  Mostly around the state of Iowa. 

April swept Jason and Marisa off to Hawaii on a seven day cruise.  In case you missed the Facebook posts, Hawaii was amazing.  Meanwhile Granny slapped on her combat gear and held down the fort.  She shuttled kids everywhere.  Hid Easter eggs.  Chased bicycles.  And probably has seen every playground in a 20 mile radius.  It's impressive what Granny's can do.

Alik finished Kindergarten and is still excited about school.  He did well and we continue to work on reading, numbers and some addition.

Misha is doing great.  He's grown another 2 inches since January and still hasn't really gained weight.  He definitely has a sweet tooth.  Misha is excited about starting pre-school in the fall and wants to be just like his big brother.

In May we went a little crazy.  We found a house on a small acreage that we liked and we bought it!  And now we have boxes everywhere!  We move in one week and everyone is excited to be moving on to our next adventure.

Next time I'll get to send this from a new house!

Johnny Cash vs. The McIlravy's

There's that song by Johnny Cash, "I've Been Everywhere Man". I think we have him beat. It feels like we have been everywhere! Don't worry I won't break into song.

August was crazy. We went to visit Granny and Papaw in Minnesota which included side trips to Oma's and Great Grandma and Grandpa's house. There were tractor rides (thanks Loren), there was airplane flying (thanks Merlyn), there was semi-truck driving (at least pretend, thanks Ed!), movies were watched in the Granny Vanny, kids of all ages were spoiled. It was crazy.

Then it was off to Omaha with Marisa's family. We did Valentino's buffett, swimming, the children's museum (highly recommend this, it's contained educational chaos!), more swimming, flooded the hot tub (not entirely our fault) and Misha fell out of bed!

Next, I know you have all been waiting for this! GOOSE HUNTING OPENER! I know! The excitement was probably killing you. So it was back to Minnesota where cranky mama (Marisa) put a hault on the "side trips" (she was tired of competing with Johnny). Both of the boys got to "hunt" with Papaw and Papa. Good time was had by all. Marisa and Twilla went on a cooking marathon which produced freezer meals of breakfast burritos, turkey hotdish, chicken hotdish, lasagna and chicken enchiladas...both Twilla's and Marisa's freezers!

Jason made a couple quick trips to the Quad Cities and Waterloo for work. Marisa jumped on a jet plane and headed for India. No I did not mean Indiana, I meant India. It was great! The people are so amazingly nice. It made Marisa think that we American's treat our guests horribly. She ate the whole trip everything from pastries, pasta, crepes, satay's, Indian food, twisted mac n' cheese, Pizza Hut, Indian sweets, cereal, brats...everything! The work part of the trip was good too. Marisa loved meeting the teams that she's been working with for years. They seemed to like having her there because they asked when she was coming back (january...shhh).

Meanwhile, Jason called in re-enforcements, our underpaid nanny. She goes by the name Granny. The kids and Jason loved having her at the house. Granny and the kids played, made cookies, ate cookies, played some more. Granny also helped out with food prep, cleaning, grocery shopping and who knows what else I'm forgetting.

AND THEN....it was DEER SEASON! I know, you thought that goose opener was exciting. Holy cats hang onto your hat. Deer season is here! Jason has a bow this year. So we have switched from giant chunks of metal to thin sticks of wood as our method of attack...not sure on the logic of that but we will see how the season progress's.

With Deer season came our first trip to Urgent Care! Marisa always thought her first trip there would be for one of the younger boys....no, it was Jason. Covered in spots from head to toe! The happy part of this is when you are covered in spots, all those coughing, sneezing, oozing people in Urgen care don't want to sit next to you. Have no fear, it was just a reaction to some medication he was on. A few days of steriods and no sleep and he was almost as good as new.

Deer season also took us out to the farm to see Grandma and Grandpa. We got to ride in the tractor, the ranger and the combine (thank you Gerald!). Misha, who is always observant, noted that a cow would not fit through the combine. Not that we tried. He just decided a cow was too big.

And THEN was our first Halloween. We partied all weekend. Marisa's office had a family Halloween event on Friday, firemen and police department had a festival on Saturday, Night Eyes at the Zoo was Saturday, Sunday was a fall festival at the church and since we live in Iowa it was Beggar's night (Marisa still thinks all trick or treating should be done on Halloween). So it was a full weekend of costumes and candy. Misha declared himself Bob the Builder for the weekend and Alik was frequently referred to as Spidy.

Next Stop! Trains and reptiles...

Where does the time go?!

I had the privelege (yes it was a privelege Laura) of sitting next to our friend Luara in class a couple weeks back (ok, so it was like a month ago). One of the first things out of Laura's mouth was "When are you going to update your blog?!". So yet again my motivation for updating is someone chewing me out for my delinquency. By the way it was one of the best classes ever and at least half of that was due to Laura being in class with me. Thanks for making it a great day!

We are good...actually phenomenal.

Alik turned 6 in July. We had a small celebration with friends and family. There was a water fight/sprinklers in the backyard. No one was hurt but several innocent bystanders ended up wet. We had cupcake ice cream cones (thanks for the idea Justin!). The kids (big and small) love them. I even saw one kid liking the cupcake like it was an actual ice cream cone. Alik received wonderful gifts. Many themed around Spiderman who he loves. Actually almost any super hereo is on the "amazing" list right now. Granny, he "lived" in his Spiderman costume the following day.

Alik is getting ready for school. He is super excited to start school and to ride the bus. We are hoping his excitement for school does not fade to quickly. Since all his school prep previously was in Russian, he is worked with a tutor 3 times a week to help ensure that he does not start kindergarten behind everyone else. Other then that he spends his days playing at Lindsey's. He likes the other kids there and enjoys playing with all her cool toys. We think he has some Grandma Van Hal in him (Marisa's grandma). Today he asked if he could wash the basement. I'll let your imagination run with how that would work (sprinkler and hose?). Since we were already working on the vehicles he got to vacuum the truck instead, which he loved.

Misha. Holy cow. The kid can eat. But he has not gained any weight! He's shot up an inch though....but his 2T shorts still are loose...they are just a little short (not quite 80's style). He insists that he is turning 6 next and will be going to school soon. We hope these two do not loose their enthusiasm for school....Marisa wishes that she had that level of enthusiasm for school.

Jason bought a bow this spring. He practices at least 2 or 3 times a week. Hopefully our freezer will be full of venison again this winter thanks to him. His new job (still with Deere) is going well and he is enjoying it. He's staying busy and seems to always have 2 shadows....which he loves! Wood working projects have slowed down, although there is a butcher block top that he's going to strip of it's finish so we can use it for meat processing.

Marisa is keeping all of her boys moving in the right direction. Menus, grocery lists, to do lists, food prep, laundry, doctor runs, etc.... Dont' get us wrong super hubby is doing a lot of that too. Marisa is back in school and has finished her first semester back. Looks like she'll pass her class. After a short break she'll start in on the next one. Work is going well for her. Sometimes on the hectic side but she still enjoys it.

It feels like we have been everywhere this summer. Both grandparents, Cananda, Iowa State Fair (where Misha just wanted to see the chickens...I couldn't make that up if I tried), library, tractor rides, inside semi cabs and trailers (thanks Ed!), Oma's, Grandma Van Hals', flying wooden planes with uncle Merlyn, Henry Doorly Zoo, Blank Park Zoo, Costco (we love the samples), doctors, dentists, Como Park Zoo....you name it we've probably been there.

We're busy little bees.....but we're loving every minute of it!!!