Preschool screening - Annalee

This girl; yes, the one in the pink, fierce sweatshirt, is growing up so fast! And each day, we love her a little bit more! She is a spunky, sassy, smart little piece of work and she is going to leave a huge impression on this world, says a proud mother.
We had Annalee's preschool screening on Friday. She exceeded expectations for her age group and at the end of the screening, the woman playing all the games with Anna said, "It is great that she is going to ELA in the fall, they will assess her there and let you know if she is still advanced as she ages." I bet she will get to go to PEP (that's for you, Emily and Adam).
Her stubborn nature showed through at the screening, when asked to jump on one foot, she said no and stuck to it. Which is weird, since we practiced before we went, but I guess that foot just didn't want to work on Friday. She also refused to count to the number seven. The number three, sure. The number eight, no problem. The number seven? Absolutely not.

Enough about the screening, though! It appears I have not updated this page for months, so I will say that we had a wonderful Christmas in Wisconsin with Ryan's family and then a nice weekend with my Weyandt Family after that. The kids are so much fun at the holidays and loved seeing everyone and getting gifts. We were able to go sledding and be outside before this brutal cold hit.

As the new year approached, sickness entered our house and lingered for awhile. It started with Annalee having to come home from daycare and progressed through everyone but Jack. Knowing him, he will wait until we are on our way to Florida to get sick and power through so as to not miss out on any of the fun.

Jack is excelling in preschool, growing his group of friends and getting excited to learn more and more. We really lucked out with these two kids of ours and, even when they test our patience (let's be honest, neither of us have much) we are still able to realize how lucky we are to have them.

More to come soon, as I really do want to keep this updated with photos. We hope everyone is having a wonderful 2016 so far! I am excited to see what this year brings!

It's beginning to look a lot like Chirstmas (a week before Thanksgiving)

 On Saturday night, we met up with Katie, Josh and family in Rice Park to watch the City light the Christmas tree and light up the park. It was smelly! Not in a good, oh yeah, it's Christmas, kind of smelly. Rather, a sewer/rotten egg/decaying leaf kind of smelly. It stuck with us even as we headed out from the site. Not a good start when you are trying to make memories! But, with this being the week before Thanksgiving, what better activity than to bundle up and head out to watch fireworks and holiday lighting light up the evening sky.

The kids thought the fireworks were fun and it was a short visit outside to get some fresh (smelly) air. All in all, it was a nice night out with friends and we hope to do more winter activities soon. We are heading North for Thanksgiving and looking forward to spending some time at the farm with my family. The snow is on its way and we are hoping for a white Christmas!

Tired children along to indulge mom!

sleepovers

Yesterday, I got a call a little after noon. My friend Jessica was at a week-long convention in Milwaukee and her husband took that to mean that he should allow his body to start producing gallstones (kidding, Matt!). With family nowhere near the cities, we were asked to step in and take the kids for the night so Matt could have his gallbladder removed. No problem, right? Just get the van to the park, shuffle car seats, find a pack and play (thank you Sara!), cook up a dinner that three picky children will eat, grab some diapers and milk from their house for the baby and get all four to bed before 8. Though it was a little bit chaotic, taking care of four kids under 5, it turned out to be a pretty fun night. The kids have known each other nearly all their lives, so they fight like siblings and boss each other around like everyone is in charge. They get a bit sassy when they are all together, but we love their individual personalities and love that they will always have each other to lean on.

That being said, I am quite content with our little family of four and applaud all the momma's out there who take care of a huge brood on a regular basis. You are amazing!

Photos from the night:

Annalee is three!

My baby girl is three years old but it seems like just yesterday we were rushing to the hospital to greet her! It is amazing how fast time is flying. And how quickly she is learning. I think we may not notice how much she picks up, with Jack always showing off the newest things he has learned at school and I hope we aren't missing out on any Annalee milestones because of it!

Anna loves numbers. She can count to 30 and can count by 10s to 100. She can recognize all the letters in the alphabet and her language skills are quite impressive. That might come from all the arguing she does with her older brother!

Anna had a small birthday party over the weekend, with family members and a couple friends. We held it in the backyard and couldn't have asked for a nicer day. Cousins came together and painted pumpkins, ate too much sugar and played. It was a very nice party and we love that we could have everyone over!

All Annalee wanted for her birthday was a bike, so she was gifted a small balance bike, similar to Jack's, to ride around the yard. Along with the bike came a helmet that she refused to take off during the remainder of the party. She insisted on wearing it later that day and most of the next evening too. Such a funny little girl, that one.

We go in for her three year old check up next week, so I will update with stats, as I like having them on here for reference points.

Annalee is a little spitfire who does not like the word no and will fight you tooth and nail for the things she wants. Is she difficult at times? Yes; but I am not willing to break her spirit. I would like her to grow up into a woman who knows what she wants and is not afraid to fight for it. I want her to be smart and independent and know how to love herself exactly how she is. Most importantly, I need her to know that she will always be loved and have a place to come to if she falls, but that she can own the world if she tries.


With all the sadness in the world, we are incredibly grateful to have been blessed with two healthy, happy kids who get to grow up here, where they are safe and have so many opportunities.We have a wonderful family/friend support system and I know they will be loved for the rest of their lives. We will continue to raise them to understand love, and teach them to grow up to be gentle, kind, strong and intelligent adults who are able to help those who have not had the luxuries we have afforded them. One day, our little wonder woman will change the world!

Thank you to everyone who is along for the ride. Love.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Ryan's men's baseball team won the coveted Championship Game for the "B" League (or something like that) last night! He has really been enjoying playing with this group of guys from Prior Lake this summer, so to watch them achieve something like winning the championship trophy was really special. The kids have both made good friends with a couple of other players children, which makes going to the games and actually watching them kind of fun. I may complain a little about how much time they take up, but we are proud of how hard he has worked to get better this year and are glad he finds something that makes him so happy. Congratulations on your win, Pacers!

Growing up!

Yesterday marked a milestone for Jack: Preschool! I dropped him off at 7:30 and he didn't look back. When I went to pick him up after work, he looked at me and said, "but I'm not ready to go home yet." I love so much that he loves school. I hope to foster that love for the rest of his life. He wouldn't tell me much about his first day, except that he got to eat cereal for breakfast, he played with hundred of toys (that were all his favorites) and that he met a girl named Piper, who was not his cousin Piper. Oh, and he told Grandma Jodie that he learned about bugs and they are not scary (that one I got from eavesdropping on his phone call). His teacher, Ms Chris, also showed me where to look to see how he did for the day. He was one of six kids who got an orange "went above and beyond" card for the day!

When I dropped him off this morning, second day, mind you, he walked in and said, "look mom, there's Tom." He proceeded to quick walk to Tom to say good morning. Tom is the janitor. I couldn't help but have a proud mom moment, that he has already learned to be friends with everyone who works there!

Over the weekend, Jack also learned how to ride a two wheel bike with no training wheels. Milestones, people, milestones! I am watching this little boy grow up so quickly and it is making my heart ache a little bit. I want him to mature enough so that we can eat a quiet dinner without having to tell anyone to sit down, but I also want him to stay the size for cuddling for a little bit longer. I am not sure I am going to know what to do when he stops wanting to sit on my lap and just be for a little bit each day.

Since this week has been so huge for Jack, poor Annalee is feeling a bit jealous of everything. She and I are going to hit up the State Fair on Friday for a girls date and I am going to figure out something nice to do for her to calm those feelings. It is hard feeling like you are being left behind by your bigger brother, I guess! She is learning by leaps and bounds too, though and is just as spunky as ever. We lowered the seat on Jack's glider for her to use yesterday as he was biking, so she felt a little more like the group.

Fulton Fisherama

Every year, the Fulton's get together to celebrate summer. This year, we decided that Jack would get to go with Mom to the Fisherama and Annalee would stay home with Dad and have a bit of a long weekend together. Jack and I headed North on Friday night. After a rough night at the farm, no one knew if we would be heading further north or heading home. It was determined, however, that once Jack had a bit more sleep, that he was feeling well enough to continue our adventure. Thus, we headed to Grand Rapids.

It turned out to be a fabulous weekend on the water. We fished, we swam and we played in the water.  We are so lucky that our family has so much lake property on Lake Pokegama. Though we are selling my grandparents house sometime soon, there are three more houses on the lake that play host to this ever growing event and we really do count our blessings when we go up there.

Jack had a blast playing with his cousins!

We headed over to my grandparent's house to pick up one or two last little items before it sells. I am guessing this is the last time we will ever be there, so I took some memory photos for me.

And, lastly, though she did not come with this year, Annalee loved her shirt!