The long of the short of it

Since it's been so long since my last update, I'll try to keep this short and sweet (yeah right, if you've met me!).

The holidays were great, the kids got a ton of toys that they are still playing with and we are still running out of room in our house. One of these days we will get the house in a state where we think we can get it on the market. We just want to move into the next school district to the east and have a house with a full basement and an attached garage.

Lena pretty much potty trained herself the first week of February! It's awesome! She still wears a diaper at night but only wakes up wet 1-2 nights a week. No complaining here! She had a bladder of steel and we're pretty sure her bladder is bigger than mine. Once again, if you've met me, that's not saying much.

Milo's doing awesome at school! He picks out words everywhere we go, sounds out words he doesn't know, and amazes us with what he can do. For instance, we were at the park and there was a sign that said, "Dead End". He asked me what it said and we started sounding it out together. I was still explaining how the "ea" made the "eh" sound and he says, "dead end" and walked away.

Milo's report cards are awesome, his behavior charts are awesome, and we even had a little play date with a girl from his class over spring break.

Milo has started t-ball and he LOVES it! Their first game is this Saturday and they've tried to have practices twice a week but the weather has not cooperated. Practice was canceled last Thursday and he was devastated, even though I had been telling him for days that a storm was coming and that he probably wasn't going to have practice. Ah, to be five again. I'm looking forward to practice tonight because of the beautiful weather we're having today (of course it's supposed to be 48 and rain tomorrow, so I'll enjoy it today).

Lena is still doing gymnastics at Fun-n-Fitness and has really improved! With the exception of today, she participates 99% of the time. She will act like she doesn't know what to do, but when no one is looking, she'll do it. Miss Barb, the owner/instructor, just laughs at her and tells me how smart she is, which we already know. :)

Jesse's super busy with work and some weeks it feels like we don't see each other until the kids are in bed, and by then I'm ready for bed. I know, it's only going to get worse as the kids get older and have more activities that they get into.

See, this is short and sweet for me! Have a great week!

Milo's School Picture

I just wanted to show Milo's K picture! This isn't his usual smile, but at least he didn't make a funny face!

He continues to surprise us with words he can recognize, last night he looked up at a doorway and said, "That says 'EXIT', e-x-l-t", which to him, the I looked like a lowercase L, so he was kind-of correct!  We did tell him that it was an I and not an L. This is not one of his sight words! :)

Have a great weekend and a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Big Update

Welcome back! There's so much I could talk about, but I'll try and keep it short and sweet. Milo is LOVING school! He comes home and amazes us with what he can do, he can recognize at least 20 words and his teacher says he should only know 7-8. 

Lena's vocabulary is exploding, I feel like I say that all the time, but this last weekend she was being a parrot! She's a smart little one, she definitely knows what's going on and what she wants.

Onto the pictures!

Back in September we went to the Trail of Courage and the kids got to make candles. Milo really enjoyed it and now he thinks every festival has this craft. :)  I also had my first turkey leg and it was delicious!! 

Lena making her candle. 

We also went apple picking in September. Because of the *fabulous* weather we had there wasn't a huge selection and the price was fairly expensive. However, we got a LOT of apples, so I made apple butter and a few batches of applesauce, which the kids devoured! 

Lena enjoying an apple that she picked. 

Milo showing me an apple that he picked. :) 

Lena at her 2nd birthday party, which was a Farm theme and we even had a LIVE pot-bellied pig!! 

Milo and Lena where we got our pumpkins, 3 of the 4 were rotten....gggrrrr 

We went to a children's museum called BellaBoo's, over in Lake Station. Needless to say, Lena loved the water table! 

Construction worker Milo at BellaBoo's! 

Artist Milo at BellaBoo's! Ever since he started school he's been into drawing and music!  

We went back to Hesston Steam Train Museum a few weeks ago to ride the Ghost Train. This was before the train ride, just walking around. 

Kids playing 

Lena on the Ghost Train, we all loved it! 

Milo with his sketch of his jack-o-lantern! 

Lena drawing on her pumpkin 

Milo scooping out her pumpkin. Nice face...

Have a great weekend!

Milo's 5 AND Started Kindergarten!!!

Happy end of August! I can't believe that my baby turned 5 AND started kindergarten! For some bizarre reason I was totally freaked out in May when I found out that we would drop Milo off at the door the first day (along with the fact that he kept telling us he didn't want to go, he just wanted to stay home with me), but a few weeks ago I totally mellowed and wasn't worried about him at all! We went to the Open House on Monday night and after he saw the classroom, he was ready to go!

Tuesday, the 21st, Milo turned 5 and had his first day of school! I was so excited for him that I was practically bouncing off the walls that morning. He was not adverse to it at all, wore his backpack the whole way down (We walk him since our district doesn't bus), and even "galloped" down the hill next to the school! He looked a little nervous going into the building by himself, but he didn't even look back. Jesse and I held it together but Lena was upset that we left him. 

He's thoroughly enjoyed his first three days, he can't remember anyone's name yet, but he has brought home colorings and some tracing of letters he's done. 

Lena has adjusted just fine to being the only one home with me. 

Onto the pictures!

We went to Clear Lake with our friends, the Mann's , and this was our first excursion in the water. Lena loved it, shock!

Snorkeling buddies! 

Milo and Olivia on the tube, over by the island. They were hilarious on this thing! 

Lena loved sitting on the tube! It was so relaxing that she fell asleep on it! I thought she was just looking at the water until I realized she was OUT! She was also so relaxed on the boat that she took her naps there. :) 

This was the kids favorite thing to do by the end of the weekend. They took these mats out in the shallow end and would "surf" on them. Of course the 3 on the left (Milo, Bree, and Liv) would fall down giggling as soon as they stood up. Grace is the only one that would remain standing! 

 My little monkey! She will do this on a piece of furniture or anything she can! She starts taking classes at Fun-n-Fitness on Wednesday morning! We need something to occupy our time while Milo's at school...

 Me and the kiddos on the train at the zoo.

Our little comic took all of her Weeblos and put them down her onesie, it was hilarious! It looked like she had a bunch of tumors around her belly. 

My kids being silly when I pulled out the camera. Shock, Lena did whatever Milo did. :) 

A good picture of Jesse and Lena, she's not squinting! 

 

The AWESOME pirate ship cake I made for Milo's birthday party!!! I'm very happy with it and everyone loved it (it was delicious, too!). The guy that works at SoccerZone said it was the coolest cake he'd ever seen and took a picture of it to show his girlfriend. He also said they were going to a wedding that night and that no matter what that cake looked like, it wouldn't compare to this one! 

It's hard to get good shots on a soccer field with 25 kids running around... 

Um, yeah, you can get a little dirty on the field... 

Milo's jet pack that Aunt Stacy made him, he loves it!! 

Milo's 1st day of Kindergarten!!! I was so happy that he was willing to get his picture taken that I didn't care about anything else! 

Jesse went into work late the first day of school so that he could walk Milo down with us. He also left work early so he could be there when it was time to pick him up! I turned around as we were walking to school and just LOVED what I saw!!!

Milo calls school his "work office" and loves that he's on the same schedule as Daddy. This morning he was telling me that he has to work today but then has two days off, then work for five, then gets 3 days off, what a smart kid!!

Have a great weekend!

Milo's First Stitches

We've had an exciting July so far, Milo got his first stitches, he was such a champ! Lena's vocabulary is exploding and she's cracking us up with her random words. Not sentences yet, but she did walk up to Jesse the other night and said, "I want more", a little shocking to us. Her new thing today is, "no, no, no, no, no!"

Jesse took Milo down to Madison, Indiana a few weekends ago for a big boat race. They braved 100+ degrees but Milo had a blast. It was nice for them to have Daddy/Milo time while Lena and I went to Cleveland for my cousin's high school graduation party. 

Onto the pictures!

 Jesse took the kids to the zoo Saturday so I could work on cupcakes for a wedding. Milo's new thing is wanting to ride the ponies. I guess Lena said she wanted to ride, also, but made it one foot and started screaming. They were nice and let Milo go around twice.

Lena enjoying yogurt! 

Father's Day morning before Jesse woke up. The kids made him paintings, which are now hanging up in his office at work. 

My parent's had two HUGE trees fall during a storm a few weeks ago. This is my dad showing Lena some of the damage. 

Lena making an obstacle course out of my parent's coffee table. 

My poor big guy about an hour after getting 5 stitches in his upper lip. This happened during the first five minutes of t-ball, and no, the ball nor the bat hit him. The ball went over his head, he turned to go get it, and fell onto the track surrounding the field. It was a clean split and Jesse took him to Med-Point. The doctor and nurses were so impressed with Milo, they said he did better than most adults! He didn't even cry while he was there and came home with stickers and lollipops! 

 Jesse and Milo making cupcake inserts so my mind could be at rest for delivering cupcakes to a wedding on Sunday. And I can reuse them!

Milo WANTED to wash the dishes that didn't fit in the dishwasher this morning. He thoroughly enjoyed himself! 

Milo got his stitches out yesterday morning! He was very nervous about it, but he did great, yet again! I think once it's fully healed, we'll barely be able to see it.

Silly Harley and Jesse at our friend's wedding. These two are goofballs.

The kids dancing! Look! Lena's more than three feet away from me!

Milo enjoying the splash pad!

This is the closest Lena got to the water by herself. For a child that LOVES the water, she did not like this. She's looking over my shoulder as I work on this and she keeps saying, "swimsuit"!

Jesse taking Lena into the "shower" at the splash pad. Good picture of both of them!

Hahahahaha!!!!

I took the kids up to the KOA campground in St. Joe/Coloma, Michigan to spend some time with my aunt and her family. The kids climbing the fence.

Uncle Jerry carrying Lena to the playground (it was SO hot yesterday!).

Milo digging at the playground, it was also the only part in the shade!

Goggle-eyes Milo taking a drink before getting in the pool. He was doing some awesome cannonballs and there was a lady that clapped for him every time he did one!

This is Lena's new "smile" when I ask her to smile. Either way, she is awesome in the water with her Puddle Jumper on!

Me and the kids with Aunt Lorraine, Uncle Jerry, Kevin and Andrea in the camp store (aaahhh, air conditioning!).

Have a great week!