September/October 2013

I have been a terrible blogger! I truly miss documenting our life on here. In an attempt to catch up, I plan to catch up two months at a time... I can't believe 7 months have gone by since I posted! Alas, here I am. 

The day after Labor Day, we began our first official homeschool year. Landon in kindergarten and Olivia in preschool. We chose Heart of Dakota as our curriculum and my sister-in-law loaned me her Sonlight read alouds. We have loved it so far! I truly enjoy the opportunity to watch the lightbulbs go off and my favorite thing to do with the kids is to snuggle down and read lots of good books. It has been hard to figure out how to keep the house clean, plan/cook meals (it feels like they are constantly hungry!), be involved in different activities and homeschool. It's a balancing act I'm trying to figure out, constantly reevaluating what to be involved and what to step back from. Praying for wisdom along the way. We are enjoying it though, and look forward to this school year.

First of all, our sweet James turned one! I can't believe how fast this first year went by. He is such a joy to us. He absolutely loves music! Whenever he hears it, he raises his hand and waves it back and forth. It doesn't matter if it's a hymn or the Wild Kratts theme song, he will get into any music. His other love is balls, he can say, "baw" and gets so excited when he finds one. Landon has a marble works set and James seems to find any stray marbles and puts them in his mouth. I can always tell when he has found one and have to squeeze his cheeks to get it loose. Thankfully he hasn't swallowed one yet! 

He had a family birthday party here in town. He was very excited about his football cake! Here he is in Iowa celebrating at one of my favorite restaurants, Hickory Park. It was fun to hear them sing to him their special birthday song and brought back many birthday memories from my childhood.

James also got his first haircut. It was bitter-sweet, he looked so much bigger after Papa was done!

The kids and I got to spend two weeks in Iowa with my family. A friend had given us a couple Monarch caterpillars to watch change into butterflies, so we brought them along too. When we got to Iowa, they had just started to go into their cocoons! There must have been an egg on one of the leaves because we found a baby caterpillar a few days after the two made their cocoons. I love this picture we got of them, at all three stages. It was such a cool thing that the kids and I were able to watch.

October was a busy month with two big weddings! First, my baby brother, the last in our family, got married to a wonderful young woman, Laura. We are thrilled to have her as part of the family! 

Landon had the privilege of being the ring bearer - a job he took very seriously :) 

There was a second wedding in October, no, not Landon and Sophie :) Chris and Stephanie! I am so happy for them and excited for this new phase of life that they are beginning together.

Then, Samuel turned 7 year old. I can't believe it's been that long since we held our sweet firstborn boy. The kids and I made a cake and we took balloons out to the cemetery and released them. We wish he was here with us, but we know that the Lord had different plans and that His ways are good. We are so blessed to have these three bundles of joy with us and know that they don't belong to us any more than sweet Samuel does. We treasure each moment the Lord blesses us with. What an eternity we have to look forward to, being with our wonderful Savior forever. No more sadness or pain, the former things being passed away! He is so good.

11 Months Old

So, this boy will be one next month! How is that possible?? I guess time flies when you're having fun :) This boy is so much fun, his demeanor is so calm and content. He loves to wave and give a big goofy smile with those big teeth of his to everyone he meets! He tries to say "dog" now by saying, "gog" and he also calls birds and any other living creature a, "gog." We call him our "monkey boy", because he's always climbing onto things and wanting to be a part of whatever Landon and Olivia are doing. He's always sitting on his knees like this too.

 And here's a picture of our sweet Olivia

...and our creative Landon

...and our currently sick James :(

Olivia's 3rd Birthday

I can't believe this sweet girl of ours is three years old! I love this precious smile of her's :) She brings us so much joy. This is her favorite thing to do, ride her little tricycle - it's amazing how fast she can go! I guess she has to keep up with her big brother. 

She still loves her "bear bear." The other day when I asked her to pick up her bear, she said, "She's not a bear, she's my baby, silly mommy." She's never been that in to dolls, but she treats her bear like it's her baby. She also likes to play trains and hide-and-go-seek with Landon. She loves her baby brother and always clenches her teeth (in a loving way) when she rubs his head. She still loves anything pink or princess and she'll always be our little princess :)

We started her celebration by bringing her breakfast in bed. She was so excited - especially about her special cereal, fruity pebbles. It's funny how little things like picking out birthday cereal can be so exciting. 

Landon picked out this Rapunzel hair for her, she was very excited. She very adamantly corrects us when we call her, "Olivia," and she is wearing her Rapunzel outfit, she says, "I'm not Olivia, I'm Rapuzel!" 

We took her, along with Landon, James, her aunt and uncle, and her cousins out to the new movie, "Planes." I couldn't believe how well James did during the movie. He just LOVED it, he would bounce when the music played and coo or scream when he got excited. After the movie, we had banana splits and sang, "Happy Birthday" to this sweetie.

James got his first taste of ice cream :) Of course he loved it, I think he has a sweet tooth like his mama.

Here's a picture of the crew, I love each of these kiddos so much! It was a very sweet birthday for a very darling three year old.

Summer

Here's a glimpse of our summer thus far... 

James got to spend time with his cousin, Madison 

We went blueberry picking. It was a lot of fun, definitely something we will try to do every year!

Seth had his work family day at Incredible Pizza, the kids had a blast

Then, we made it out to an amusement park with friends. I loved this place, there was no ride to small for these little guys.

Next was the Fourth of July so we headed north to visit my family. I love this picture of Olivia with Nanny :)

We had so much fun with family and friends

 Landon loved the sparklers! Olivia on the other hand, burnt her foot on one so did not like them a bit. They all really enjoyed the firework show though! 

 I got to take the kids to their first parade, they loved it!

We had a great time at the annual conference as well. I love that Landon is starting to form friendships with my lifelong friends' kiddos.

Landon took swimming lessons, he is getting so close to learning how to swim, he can now sort of doggie paddle, and just loves the water!

We harvested our pumpkins that Landon was so excited to plant earlier this year, I guess we planted them a little too early since they were ready early July! I then proceeded to bake, de-seed and make pumpkin puree - my, was that a project that I do not care to do again! There's a reason that they are supposed to be harvested in the fall, the kitchen was like a sauna.

Then, we had more cousins come to visit. It was a little crazy because we had a huge wind storm that knocked out power for a lot of the city. We had a great time despite the craziness.

The boys got to go to see a real submarine. They all came back talking a mile a minute about how many doors (Landon's guess 100 :) ), bunkbeds, and bathrooms there were and how cool it was!

 We lost a tree at our rental house in the wind storm. Here's a picture of Landon helping Seth cut up all the branches, he's a hard worker!

We have had a wonderful summer so far (it's not quite over). We're gearing up for school now, Landon will be in kindergarten this year, so we're excited to begin this new phase of life.

James at 10 Months Old

 Here is James at 10 months old already. I can't believe he's going to be a year old soon! The other day he tried to say, "cake." His version sounded like, "ca" I guess he's anxious for his birthday.

He finally got his other front tooth, but it's taking a while for it to catch up with his other one. We joke that he looks like 'Mater :) He has stood by himself a couple of times, but I don't think he likes the feeling. We'll see how soon he decides to walk - that'll be a whole new level of crazy!

He's such a silly sweet boy and he brings so much joy to our lives.

James at 9 months

James is now 9 months old and he got two more teeth this month!

 Poor boy looked like this for a while with one big top tooth.

But he sure does have a sweet smile

James is always happy and loves to wave at everyone he sees. One thing that a friend pointed out to me that I just love about James is that he will let me hold him. Even though he has figured out the crawling thing and is very busy and curious, if I pick him up, he snuggles in and just lets me hold him. I'm not sure if he does this because I don't get to hold as much as I would like to or if he's just a snuggler, but I'll take it either way!

Landon and Olivia love their baby brother and are always giving him lots of hugs and kisses and making him laugh.