may babies

May is a fun and busy month in our house!  Big E turned 8, Miss Em turned 3, Mom turns **cough** thirty-something **cough**, and then add on Mothers Day, teacher appreciation week/end of school stuff, and capping it all off with Memorial Day! Whew! 

Here are a few highlights from my growing babies...

BIG E:

• Loves to dress in black, neon, camo, and sometimes all three.
• Loves swords, nerf guns, and spy gear. Requested a double-edged sword for this birthday, but settled on a hatchet.
• Went turkey hunting for the first time (no one was hurt - not even a turkey)
• Best friend is Kale
• Aces most spelling tests
• Super responsible kid and an awesome big brother! He makes me proud every day!

MISS EM:

• Loves to wear her "cow boots"
• Rough & tough girl. Walked in one day to find her sparring with a boy from her class.
• Loves to sing, especially Happy Birthday, ABCs, Old McDonald, and Little Bunny Foo-Foo
• Wanted scissors and candy for her birthday 
• Best friend is Sutton aka "Sutt-Sutt". Other buddies include Sibley "Sibby-rose" and Kate.  
• "Yesterday" means anything from this morning to three years ago (example: "I was at that hospital yesterday when I was a baby."
• Total daddy's girl, but gives mama plenty of hugs and kisses too. Love our baby girl!

This year the kids had a horse party for their birthdays! If you ask Em which was her favorite: the slower smaller horse, or the bigger faster horse, the answer is of course the big fast one (not pictured)!

Halloween 2006-2013

This is a little story about a lion, a zebra, and a bumblebee...  

leaping

We have found an awesome renter for our house. (yay!) However, she's set to move in approximately two weeks before our new house is complete.  The good news is that we'll be able to save a month or two's worth of mortgage.  The not-so-good news is that we'll be displaced for a couple weeks. But the saving grace is we'll be staying with my mom and she has a pool.

This whole process has been one giant leap of faith.  It's been a while since I've done something that has scared me; it's good for the soul I think.

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Ok it's kid story time...

We're out for Sunday errands and Big E yells from the back seat: "Hey the balls fell off of dicks!"

What's that son?  Well, sure enough.  The balls had fallen off of our local Dick's Sporting Goods sign.  I don't have an actual pic, but here's a visual for you...

They just fell plum off.  Of course we also just bought his "wiener helmet" (aka jock strap & cup) from Dick's.  The size? Peewee large. Ok I'll stop now.

march kidstagram

Cute kids + Instagram = Obsessed!  (albeit a little late)

riding back from visiting family in Illinois

working on some dance moves

story time with Big E

loves to make mustaches

taken by her big brother

finally warm enough for the park

sick again at the doctor's office

playing jeff's piano

easter morning funny faces

peeking out of em's new window!

helping daddy with yardwork

horsing around

watching elmo videos on youtube

house update & basketball recap

This week's house progress pics don't look a lot different than the last ones.  Oh yeah, except for another foot of SNOW!  Geez, you can't even see the front door.  They did get the second floor framed in so you can kind of tell where the rooms are. Should have some good weather this week, and it's take two at the flooring place since we got snowed in last time. Is it spring yet???

Week 9: second floor framing

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Saturday was Big E's last basketball game! He improved a lot over the season.  He found some focus and urgency to his game.  He figured out his favorite thing to do is defend and was able to get several jump balls during each of the last few games.

And while he got some shots in the air, he didn't manage to get any in the basket this year.  I think he might have made one during his last game, but he took a hard hit from a linebacker who mowed him over. I have it on video. It's not pretty. Apparently there is crying in basketball.

E and one of his best buddies.

Good season boys!

Big E's Holiday Program

our little rudolph in a sea of elves

dada and brother's biggest fan

em looking cute in her new christmas outfit from grandma

posing with brother the red-nosed reindeer

pure joy

Here are a couple of videos of Big E practicing Jingle Bells and his school's new fight song, which the kids debuted at the holiday performance!

Breakfast with Santa

Breakfast with Santa is always fun, right?  I get to pose in the big jolly man's chair...

wear a Santa hat and take more pictures with my sister...

and sit on his cozy lap and tell him all I want for Christmas and that I've been a good boy.

And then my sweet little sister joins me on his lap...

for about two seconds before throwing her hands up and arching her back, turning Santa into a furry slip-n-slide.

I'm not sure you're getting that meowing cat you wanted.  We'll try again next year, sis.

dinosaurs & money

I finally got a video of Em acting out her favorite song!




And this is what happens when I turn on the video function on my phone and give it to big E. I'm thinking he needs his own podcast series.

munchkin update

Big E

Almost 6 1/2 and in first grade, E is a high energy kid.  On a scale of 1-10, his volume level is often at 11.  He's super funny, super nice to his friends and super smart. His favorite subject is math.  He struggles with reading a little bit, but is trying hard to learn. We read almost every night and started working on flash cards for sight words. I fell like he will be rainman when it comes to math - just like his dad. The numbers just seem to come to him. He's also very interested in space, which I've learned freaks me out. Anyone else get anxiety talking about space?

E's a hard one to get to stand still for more than a second, but here's a short interview I managed to film.

Em

At 16 months, Em loves music, books and drawing.  She'll focus for a long time on anything with buttons to push. There's one toy with a little keyboard on it and I she played the best song for me. She loves Ring Around the Rosy, Old McDonald, and Twinkle Twinkle Dinosaur (with big ROARS and stomping included, which I totally need to get on camera). If she hears music, that little blond head starts bobbing.

Her communication skills are the biggest advances lately.  She can sign for please, thank you, and milk, and can say "baa" for sheep, "ma" for more/milk, and nods yes or shakes her head no. When you ask her to say the word "please" after she signs it, she'll just make the biggest "cheese" face. It's cute.

I did manage to capture some moments on camera this month.  Loving the easy upload from my phone to YouTube.

Excited for Dada to be home | Eating a lemon | Riding her pony

The best part of all is seeing all the sibling love. They love to wrestle and hug. Em wants anything her big bro is playing with, and sometimes he'll even let her have it. These two sure keep us busy and it's hard work, but I can't imagine life without them. Yup, we're pretty much moving to wherever they go after college. 

i prayed for you [update on big e]

It's been a while since I've written an update on Big E. The first half of kindergarten was a challenge adjusting to new schedules and tired kids, but the second half has been glorious.  He's just been the best kid, big brother and friend.  

One day after school he brought home a girl's phone number. Not in his handwriting.  He even knew that the first digit should be a 7, even though she wrote a 1.  So dad let him use his phone and the girl's unexpecting mother picked up on the other end.  The first words out of his mouth: "Nina said I'm supposed to come to your house".  I tried stifle my laughter and whispered "Introduce yourself first!".   He said "I'm in Nina's class" but it was too late.  The mom had hung up on him.  He wanted to call back, but we thought maybe that would be a little much, so he waited until the next day to talk to her at school.  Turns out she was at some sort of practice anyway.  I'll say I'm pretty proud of how brave my little man is!

Seeing my post about this on facebook, his long-time girlfriend's mom wrote me a message, worried that Maddie had been replaced.  I told E about this later and he said "No! Of course not! Why would she think that?!"  Two days later, he's still talking about it to dad "Why would Maddie think I would replace her?" Such a good and loyal friend. He made sure to send her a Valentine.

For a while he was obsessed with wanting a guitar.  I guess someone had come to school to show them how to play one. I just happened to mention this to a vendor I work with who has played music for years.  I didn't realize she taught guitar too. Guess who gets to strum on a borrowed guitar for a while? It's currently one of his favorite things to do.  He quickly got it out of tune, but I guess it doesn't really matter at this point.  I contacted a local college for music lessons, but they won't start until age 8.  Maybe we'll learn a few chords off of YouTube in the meantime.

A few times lately, he has gently laid his hand on his sis and said "I prayed for you."  See, when he was really wanting a little brother or sister, he asked how to get one. I told him that if you ask God in your night-night prayers, he might put one in mommy's belly. And that's what he did for about six months before I got pregnant.  So it just melts my heart now when I hear him tell his baby sis "I prayed for you." Of course, he recently decided he was going to pray for another baby.  I told him he better hold up on that for now. :)

I truly can't imagine a better kid.  I love my cuddle bug so much! He's going to be such a wonderful boyfriend/husband one day for some lucky girl.  For now though, he's all mine.