Ryan's graduation

It was finally time for Ryan's big day today  . . . kindergarten graduation!  With the boy looking good (we picked out an outfit last night), breakfast done, and teeth brushed, Ryan was off to school.  After that, we (Trav, myself, Lauren, Ellie, Grandma Connie, and Grandpa Jim) headed out to the school for the big event.  The parking lot was packed and so was the gym - good thing we're tall so standing in the back works just fine for us.  The program consisted of some songs, an introduction of each child, and a crazy recessional to the tune of, "It's a Celebration" (pretty cute).  After the program and some class pictures, we headed to the lunch area for juice and cookies.  There we mingled with friends and chatted with Ryan's teacher before we ventured down to his classroom one last time - crazy how fast it all went.  Even more crazy . . . at one point during the ceremony, the teacher said, "Let's here it once again for the future class of 2023" - it seems so far off, but with things going as fast as they have been, that date will be here before we know it, and sadly, I'll be a real old lady!  Here are a couple of short videos and some quick pictures from the day.  Congrats again to our little graduate, we are so proud!!

Ryan and his buddy, Gavin

Memorial Day weekend

We had a busy holiday weekend.  Trav and the kids went to the lake while I stayed home and helped Aaron and Ann move into their new house - I might have gotten the raw deal on that one!  Actually, other than the sore body, the moving, painting, and helping organize the house was kind of fun (although I am in no hurry to help out again any time soon).  And Trav and the kids said they all had a good time so I guess the weekend will go down as a success.  Next weekend we have big plans again . . . stain and paint the deck.  Aren't weekends supposed to be fun and relaxing?

In other news . . .  Ryan has a big day tomorrow as he graduates from kindergarten - yay, we are so excited for him !!!   The big event consists of a little graduation ceremony followed by juice and cookies - not a bad start to a short week.  Pictures and more details coming tomorrow.

And finally, in other not so good news, I was a terrible parent this past week.  Ryan lost his third tooth on Friday and when it came time for the Tooth Fairy to make a visit, I realized I didn't have any one dollar bills in my purse.  After checking with Travis and realizing neither of us had anything smaller than a five dollar bill (Trav almost said to give him a $5, but I stopped him in mid sentence and said absolutely not - there is no way I'm starting that now only to keep it up for the next 10 years), I had to resort to thievery.  I (regrettably) broke into Ryan's piggy bank and took out a one dollar bill, slipped it under the tooth box, grabbed the tooth, and snuck back out of his room undetected.  Like I said, I was a terrible parent.  On the up side, Ryan actually owed me $10 so technically, now he only owes me $9 - I wish that made me less guilty, but it really doesn't - oh well.

 Lesson learned . . . always keep one dollar bills in the house just in case.

Ellie's new talents

Our little lady has mastered a few new talents over the past couple of weeks . . . first up, "bye-bye."  She does more of a parade type wave (think lots of wrist action), but still manages to get the job done.  In addition to waving "bye-bye", she also has learned the art of kissing and blowing kisses - she is so multi-talented!  Her "contact" kisses come complete with a little lean in with the head, followed by a gentle touch of her lips, and then as a final touch, she gives a little lip smack - so, so sweet.  If she isn't in the mode for full contact, she will gladly blow some kisses your way.  This (remember I'm her mom so I'm totally biased here), is also super cute.  She covers her entire mouth with her little hand, plants a kiss, then pulls her hand away, and gives you that huge "toothy" grin of hers - like I said, super cute.  Speaking of teeth, Ellie has managed to go from 4 teeth to 9 teeth in a matter of a couple of weeks.  And these aren't just any teeth we're talking about.  No, these are the "big" guys.  Three molars in one week - you can imagine the fun we had at our house.  In addition to the molars, she is also cutting two more teeth on the top, front of her mouth.  If she keeps going at this rate, she should have a mouth full of chompers in another month or two.  The upside to all of the teeth, she is now eating steak - just kidding.  Although she does eat pretty much everything else in sight . . . fried egg sandwiches, coleslaw, burritos, all things I can't imagine a normal baby eats, but she does!  Moving onto her physical activity . . . she still isn't walking on her own yet, but progress is good.  She stands up by herself and manages to stay standing for a couple of seconds.  She has also mastered (mastered might be a strong word to use here, more like figured out) how to get down the steps on her own.  She scoots her little butt as close as she can get to the stairs, then dangles her toes until she makes contact.  After that, she slides down backwards on her belly and off she goes - whatever gets her where she wants to go is good with me.  And finally (and most importantly in Ellie's world), she continues her friendship she has had since birth with . . . her thumb!  The kid relies on the thumb in any kind of situation . . . to sleep, to keep her occupied when she is done eating, when life doesn't go her way.  Really, whenever she has nothing to do, she always has her thumb - it is literally her best friend.  I'm okay with this for now, but I can already see the issues we are going to have trying to get her to stop sucking on it.  I'm going to go ahead and save that battle for later and just be happy with the way things are now.  Here are a couple of videos of Ellie showing off, and a couple of pictures of Lauren and Colton watching and entertaining themselves - enjoy.

Unattended children

What happens when you walk out of the room and leave your 1-year-old unattended with her big sister and windows crayons?  All of a sudden you hear laughing, and by the time you get back into the kitchen, you see your 3-year-old drawing on her little sister's face  . . . so much fun!

Green forehead, blue nose, and a pink goatee - nice look Ellie.  Whatever, at least they were having fun and the window crayons wipe off pretty easy so no harm done (other than to Ellie's hair, that didn't wipe out so easy).

Random pictures

I just realized I never uploaded these pictures off my camera so I did it today.  Random shots . . . Ryan reading a book to Colton (he does this at least a couple of days a week).  Colton is by far his most captive audience at the moment (Ellie doesn't sit still long enough and Lauren tries to "help" him read which he does not appreciate), Ellie in one of my favorite old outfits of Lauren's, and Lauren being her normal happy self.

Babes in the park

The weather was nice, the kids were happy . . . this was the perfect day for a park visit! And this visit was a "first" for me. It was the first time packing up all four kids (my three plus Colton) and venturing out for an actual activity, and not just to drop off or pick up someone - kind of a big deal. So, with naps done, snacks all eaten (and a bottle for Colt), we loaded up (it is still so weird to have two rear-facing car seats in the van), and headed out to try out a new (new to us at least) park in town. It took all of two seconds after pulling in for Ryan and Lauren to unbuckle and get out of the door - they were really excited! And why wouldn't they be? This park had it all, great slides, lots of swings, and best of all (for me at least), a fence around the whole thing to keep all the "runaway" kiddies safe inside. With Ryan and Lauren off playing with some new "friends" (they literally walked into the park and asked the first couple of kids they saw if they, "wanted to play"), I was left to tend to the little ones. Knowing how much Ellie loves swings, I thought we would start there. I mistakenly thought it would be fun to put both of the babes in the same swing, back-to-back. The minute I tried to stick Colton in Ellie's swing, she leaned back and made sure to let me know that this was her swing, and she did not need anyone else in it with her - silly me. So instead, I put Colton in the swing next to her, and they were off. I'm sure they would have sat in the swings the entire time, but because we were hogging both of the baby swings, and there were other little ones at the park, I decided it was best to take them out and find other adventures for them - let's just say nothing was as good as those swings. After about 40 minutes, the baby meltdowns ensued and it was time to hit the road. By then Ryan and Lauren were hot and sweaty from their constant running and were more than happy to get in the van and get some water. Overall, I'd say it was a great first adventure with the whole gang. We are looking forward to many more this summer! Here are the only pictures I managed to get. The big kids were far too busy doing their own thing so I only managed to get pictures of the two immobile little people.

Love this last picture of Ellie . . . she just couldn't figure out why all the big kids could climb up and she couldn't - what a bum deal.

The little game of "catch-up"

I haven't been doing the greatest at keeping up with this lately.  There have been two big factors in that, and their names are Ashley and Colton.  First up, it seems like whenever Ash comes to visit, I do less typing and more actual talking to a person - what a concept!  Anyway, with her 214 day (I may be exaggerating on that number a bit, I think it was closer to 5 weeks) "vacation" back to MN coming to an end, there will be one less adult to talk to during the day (that officially will leave me with zero), so with no other outlet, I expect my blogging to pick up a bit.  That is, if my other "X" factor, Colton, will work with me.  So far, so good.  Ellie is on her normal napping schedule, and Colton seems to be getting the hang of things around here.  I give him a couple more weeks and this place will be running like a well oiled machine which will leave me with a good hour to hour and a half of "quiet" time in the afternoon when the big kids play by themselves, and the babies sleep - that should make for some excellent blogging time.  With that said, there are a few things to catch up on. 

The first big news . . . Ryan has started riding his bike without training wheels.  Well, actually, it is not his bike that he rides now, rather, he has gone back to his little bike where he has a little more control, and a lot shorter distance to the pavement should he take a bad fall (I'm happy to report there have been no falls to date).  In addition to that, his kindergarten school year is quickly coming to an end.  He "graduates" on May 31st - hard to believe this will be his second graduation already, by the time his high school graduation rolls around, he probably won't even care.  After school ends, summer activities begin.  He chose to do both soccer and t-ball again this year so he (or should I say, we) should stay pretty busy.

Lauren also had some big news this past week . . . she had her first official visit to the nail salon!  That's right people, my 3 year had her first pedicure this past week, and to think, I had my first just a couple of years ago.  I guess it is true what they say, you always want better for your kids!  On top of looking beautiful with her pretty painted toes, the little lady is also gearing up for the end of her school year.  She has just 3 more classes and then speech class with Mrs. Rebecca is done.  Some days I'm not so sure the class has helped as much as I would have liked, but then Lauren will strike up a conversation with a neighbor and that person will mention how much easier it is to understand her so I guess it must be working after all.  She will continue speech classes next year twice a week so hopefully things will continue to improve.

And finally, the babe.  Ellie is still the same Ellie.  She has yet to take her first step, although she is getting around furniture much quicker so maybe it will happen soon, and maybe not.  Whenever she's ready, we'll be ready too.  She has also cut two molars in the past couple of weeks which has meant lots of crying and messy diapers - good news . . . 2 more teeth down, bad news . . .too many more to go.  With the addition of her two new teeth, the kid eats pretty much anything, and lots of it!  As of now, she is our best eater.  It you can dice it up and throw it on her tray, she'll do the rest.  She still maintains her honor of being the "best baby ever."  Her days are very predictable, wake up, eat, play, diaper change, wake up, eat, play, diaper change, you get the idea - very simple, very easy.  You take out a few bad days here and there and she has literally been the easiest baby ever (here is where I would say, "I'd take 10 more if they were just like her", but I won't because that would be a lie - 3 kids is enough for me).

That pretty much sums things up around here.  On an exciting note, I have planned a trip out to Brookings in June to take the kids to the SDSU campus and visit an old friend.  I can't wait to see how much the campus has changed (it has been 4 years since my last visit), to show the kids where their mom played basketball, and best of all, to see an old friend and meet her kids for the first time - fun times ahead!

It's HOT!!!

Today was all about enjoying the warm (or should I say, HOT weather outside - it was 88 degrees). We started out in the morning as usual playing in the cul-de-sac with bikes, wagons, trikes - whatever it was that the kids felt like playing with. Then, after lunch we had big plans to go to a park somewhere, but one step outside, and I knew that wasn't going to happen. It wasn't only hot, it was super muggy. My mind switched from park to sprinkler. After getting everything set, the kids got their swimsuits on, and we headed out to the backyard for some fun - check it out . . .

The babies were thoroughly impressed and amazed by the things Ryan and Lauren were doing.  Ellie just sat in the stroller with Colt (who was busy chewing on the straps by the way) trying to figure the whole thing out.  This was great for me - two quiet babes and two kids having fun, how perfect.  That all changed though once Ash brought in the "goods."  The "goods" I speak of are strawberry/banana smoothies from Caribou.  Once they were spotted, Ryan and Lauren fought over who got the first drink, and Ellie nearly started shaking (even though she had no idea what was in my glass, she just knew she had to have it).  I then made the terrible mistake of letting her suck on my straw - let's just say that was the end of my smoothie and the beginning of her addiction.  The kid literally sucked on the straw as hard as she could and for as long as she could until she finally had to take her little blue lips (okay, maybe they weren't really blue, but they were heading in that direction) off the straw to take a breathe.  And me being the inconsiderate person I am, decided that her break could be my turn to take a drink - I quickly found out how wrong I was.  The minute my hand touched the glass, she started to shake and whimper.  I finally had to run in the house and pour some of the smoothie into a sippy cup for fear that if I didn't, my 1 year old would steal and consume my entire drink.  After the whole "smoothie incident" (I have learned my lesson trust me), we resumed playtime.  Ellie and Colton stripped down to their diapers (it was seriously hot) while Ryan and Lauren headed back to the sprinkler.  Here are some more pictures from the day . . . make sure to check out all of Lauren's poses - the kid really knows how to work the camera!

Matchy-matchy

A couple pics of Colton and Ellie in their matching coats. Lauren assisted in getting them to sit still - you can see we weren't that successful.

12-Month Well-Child Exam

So Ellie had her 12-month well-child exam today, and as usual, she is looking good.  Her stats are as follows:  Weight: 20 lbs 12 oz, 45%, Height: 31 inches, 96%, Head: 18 1/2 in, 90%.  In comparison to her 9 month exam, she has gained 2 lbs, stretched out another 2 inches, and expanded her brain size another 1/4 of an inch - not too shabby for 3 months of work!

How she stacks up compared to Ryan and Lauren at 12 months . . . she is the shortest by over an inch (and the nurse still commented on how long she was!).  Ryan was 32 1/2 inches longs, while Lauren even put him to shame by coming in at 33 1/4 inches long (now, she was a tall baby!).  Ellie also comes in last in the weight division.  Ryan weighed in at 23 lbs, and Lauren took the gold again at a whopping 24 lbs 8 oz (like I said, she was a BIG baby).  And finally, the head.  This was the one area Ellie didn't come in last, Lauren did (the biggest kid had the smallest head, how ironic).  Ryan's huge head was measured at 19.4 inches (he has always had a rather large head), Ellie came in second at 18.5 inches, and Lauren pulled up the rear measuring in at 18.3 inches.

Beyond all the measuring and poking and prodding, Ellie also got three shots and a finger prick to check her hemoglobin.  After that, the babe was spent!  We came home and she immediately went down for her well deserved morning nap - oh, to have the life of a baby!