Time flies . . .

Time does literally seem to "fly by" when Auntie is in town.  She was here for eight days, but when I stop and look back, it seems like she just got here, and now she is gone.  As per usual when I have someone to hang out with and talk to, blogging seems to be forgotten about.  So, I'll use today (my first official day "back to normal") as a chance to update everyone on the happenings of the past few days.  As I mentioned already, Ash was in town for the past week.  The kids (especially Lauren) love to have their Auntie around, and I love to have a second set of hands to help me - what a good deal for everyone!  Although this visit was a little different than all the previous ones because this was the first time Ash has been back since Ryan and Lauren both started school.  In the past, we've done lots of outings when she is home, but with two kids on two different school schedules, outings are limited so we spent a lot of time just hanging out at the house.  That meant lots of playing outside, riding bikes, and walks which was great considering the almost perfect weather we had.  Highlights of the past week . . . Ryan finally figured out how to ride his big bike (which we bought him for his 5th birthday) with no training wheels!!!  He had already mastered the no training wheels thing on his little bike, but to say that he looked anything less then a little odd riding a miniature bike with his crazy long legs bouncing up and down would be an understatement.  I don't know if it was the $1 bribe I gave him, or the fact that one of the neighbor kids said he looked like a clown riding his little bike that finally got him to give it a try, but whatever it was, it worked!  He now loves riding bike and thinks it is pretty cool that he can go, "so much faster now" on his big bike.  Lauren's big highlight had to be her Friday morning (the only day she doesn't have school) outing with Auntie - think nails and Caribou and you've got the idea.  I seriously don't think Ash could find a better "best friend" than Lauren.  She loves all the same things Ash does . . . fashion, hair, nails, and Caribou, and for the most part, will just go along with whatever you say.  The ladies spent Friday morning getting their nails painted (Ash said the nail ladies actually recognized Lauren - that should be a red flag), and then finished off their outing with a stop at Caribou (Lauren second favorite place to go with Auntie) where Lauren got her morning cup of jo (or in her case, hot cocoa).  If she could start every day like that, Lauren would be one happy little girl!  Thanks again Auntie for taking your "mini-me" out for a morning of fun.  Now for Ellie . . . I guess her highlight would be almost using a fork correctly.  I always give her a fork or spoon with her meal, but usually it just lays on her tray.  During the past few meals though, she has finally taken some interest in using her utensils.  So the other day when she held her fork in her right hand and shoveled her food in her mouth with her left, I had to just smile - at least she now picks up her utensils - it is progress!

Other than that, we are staying busy.  I have big plans of a bathroom/closet remodel on my mind.  The only problem . . . I don't want to spend any money to get it done!  So now I spend my days scouring the Internet for cheap, DIY remodel projects - I'll be curious to see what, if anything, we decide to do - stay tuned . . .

Haircut and clothes!

We've been staying busy these past few days.  Trav was gone all weekend for his brother's bachelor party so the kids and I headed to Grandma and Grandpa Loken's house for the day on Saturday to check out the "Fall Festival."  There were hayrides, pumpkin painting, and most fun . . . the border collie agility and herding demonstration.  The kids loved it!  After the weekend, we got back into our normal routine with one exception . . . a first haircut for our little girl who had a mini-mullet.  Lauren had her first haircut at almost 3 years of age at Liv Aveda Salon.  Ellie is 18 months old and got her first haircut at Great Clips - clearly she got the short end of the stick on that deal!  Other than that, not much else happening so I'll leave with some recent pictures.  Most are of Lauren in one of her many new outfits - she just looks so cute and loves having her picture taken so it's hard to resist.  The last one is obviously an outfit that Auntie picked out.  She brought it back for Lauren from California (Auntie just got in last night to spend 8 days with us).  Lauren of course loves it and loves having Auntie here to do her hair because as she says, "Mom hurts my hair when she braids it" - thanks Lauren, at least I'm trying!

Scrappy

Okay, just so you know, I'm not one of those crazy people who is going to consider my dog to be like one of my children (who are the people I usually write about), but we've had some interesting details unfold about in Scrappy in the past couple of days so I thought I'd take one whole post to dedicate just to him.  He is still a great dog, still sheds more than I would like, but I'll deal with it.  The interesting stuff started when I took him to the vet to get his heart worm medicine and to do a physical just to make sure the dog was in good health.  About two minutes into the exam, one of the vet's helpers said, "Got one."  I of course am thinking the worse and say, "Got one what - a tick, some kind of bug, what?"  Turns out they found a microchip in him.  I thought this was great (now if he gets away, we'll have a way to track down the little bugger), but the vet thought differently.  They started asking me questions about how Scrappy came into a rescue shelter in the first place and how long he was there.  And because I had looked at some many dogs before we got Scrappy, all of their stories started to blend in my mind and I really couldn't be certain, but I gave the answer I thought was true . . . "he was a stray."  At that point, the vet nods his head and gives me a look of concern.  Not really sure where he is going with this, I try to stay focused and figure out what is going on.  Then the vet's "helper" comes back into the room and says, "I left a message, the place is closed already."  Turns out the vet was thinking that maybe Scrappy was a lost dog and that meant someone could be looking for him.  It wasn't until that point that I can honestly say I felt some loyalty towards the dog.  All I kept thinking was, "please don't let this be a lost dog, please" (especially because the kids would be devastated).  So anyway, we finish up with everything, get sent home and the vet tells me he'll call tomorrow with news.  So the next day the phone rings - it's the vet.  He says, "well, I've got some news for you."  I say, "good news, or bad news?"  He says, "interesting good news" - I'm thinking this conversation is going to be good.  To make a long story short (something the vet did not do even though he could hear my kids screaming in the background - probably why he works with animals and not people), he tells me how they finally got in contact with the breeder who had the microchip listed to her - she is in Missouri.  Turns out this breeder is actually the woman who bred Scrappy, in fact, she still has both of his parents at her place.  She tried to find his original owner, but because they never registered the microchip and the phone number she had for them was disconnected, she couldn't so that means the little guy is ours forever (weird that I am excited about that and weird how a dog born in Missouri ended up in MN).  It gets better . . . Scrappy is not just some mutt (he was listed as a Min Pin mix on the rescue papers), he is actually a pure bred German Hunt Terrier, a very rare dog especially in black and tan (which are his colors).  Man did we hit the jackpot!!  Then the vet goes on to tell me that the breeder would actually like me to call her so she can give me some background on Scrappy and tell me all about his bloodlines (which means nothing to me because I don't know dog lingo), but whatever.  I take the lady's name and number and call her the next day.  And man, does she love her dogs!  The lady had to be in her 60's or 70's (she told me about some of her health issues and they seem like "older" people health issues) and she spoke with a real "southern drawl" - it was fascinating to say the least.  During the conversation she repeatedly told me what a, "great dog" we had, she told me about both of his parents (in fact, the parents just had another litter a week ago so she's going to send me some pictures), and about how she and her husband came to love this particular breed of dogs.  She then proceeded to tell me she might be, "part dog" because she is around them all the time and that I should treat Scrappy just like a child - praise him when he is good, scold him when he is bad, and we should all be happy.  Sounds pretty easy, let's hope it goes that smooth!

So now we have this cool "adoption" story about our dog.  I have done more research on dogs in the past two months than I ever thought possible, but if Scrappy turns out to be half the dog this lady says he'll be, we should be so lucky!  Oh, and one more super important thing . . . Sharon (the breeder) gave me Scrappy's real birth date - May 22, 2008 - Ryan is thrilled because now Scrappy can have a real birthday party (probably not going to happen, but a kid can dream) on his real birthday - yay to that!

Lauren's second "1st day of school"

Lauren had her second "1st day of school" today. Yesterday was preschool, today was speech school. She of course wanted to dress pretty again so after scouring through her clothes, she selected this new outfit Grandma Connie just sent her - if I have to say so myself, she looks pretty darn cute in it! With the perfect outfit, braided hair, and her all important "wedding shoes" (she calls them this because she wore them when Auntie got married), she was ready to go. We of course had to snap a few pictures before the bus came, then she was off.   Do you think she likes having her picture taken?

 A nice part about the bus this year is that she has the same driver as last year and Lauren loved "Barb the bus driver" which makes things easier for her, and more relaxing for me.  When school came to an end and the bus pulled up in front of our house, Lauren was all smiles - a very good sign that things went well.  There were lots of stories told about all her "new friends" and about how they got to do circle time just like she did in preschool - by all accounts, a great day!  And to make things even better, her teacher, Ms. Beth, called to let me know that Lauren had a great first day of school, she participated in all activities and was a great leader in class (which is very surprising considering she is usually running with the older kids at home and tends to be more of a follower and not a leader - this could be a very good thing for her).  It is now nap time, and much like yesterday, she is ready for a rest.  Yesterday her nap was two and a half hours (the exact length of her preschool class) - hopefully this pattern doesn't follow through today or that would mean just a short one hour nap!

Lauren's first day of school

Our little Lauren is growing up and following in her brother's foot steps.  She had her first day at preschool today (she calls if Ryan's old school).  She was super excited this morning when she got up, and after breakfast, it was time to get dressed and take some pictures. 

As you can see, she was happy, Ryan was not.  God forbid the kid had to take a picture that wasn't completely focused on him!  After our quick photo shoot, we walked Ryan down to the bus stop, went back home, and put the finishing touches on Lauren' first day of school outfit (we had to braid her hair, and fix her shoes because she had them on the wrong feet).  With that, I packed up everyone and off we went.  Lauren did great!  We of course stopped to take a couple of pictures on the way in, but once she got in the classroom, there was no looking back for her.  She found her name (which impressed me because I wasn't so sure she knew what her written name looked like), and put her little person in the box (they do this to let the teachers know which kids have arrived, and which ones they are still waiting for).  After that, she gave me a hug and a kiss and was off to play with some little girls in the "kitchen" area.  Clearly she was ready for this!  When class came to an end, we (me, Ellie, and Colton) were waiting in the hall to pick her up.  She walked out of the classroom with a huge smile on her face and lots of stories to tell - a sigh that her day was good!  So up until this point, all is well with our day.  It's not until we get home and I ask her to wash her hands so we can sit down and eat that she gets a little crazy (this is when I know that school wore her out and a nap is a must today).  She has a breakdown because I turn on the water for her when apparently I should have known she was going to do it, then she gets even more mad when I walk back into the bathroom and tell her to hurry up because at this point she has been "washing" her hands for a good five minutes.  You can see where this is going . . . she falls apart, gets put in timeout, and about five minutes later emerges from her room all sad and regretful of her actions (this is when I feel bad for her).  After that "little" incident, she reverts back to her normal self, eats lunch, and lays down for a two and a half hour nap - think she was tired?  I hope her little body adjusts to all of this running soon because from here on out, she is only going to get busier!  Here is the little lady on the front steps, in front of the school, and by her locker - luckily she loves posing for pictures!

On a side note . . . we had a little scare today involving my camera (which I just purchased last Christmas for myself - thanks again Trav).  Anyway, in the rush of trying to get a picture of everyone on the steps this morning and then get to the bus, I put on my camera on top of Trav's trunk (obviously I wasn't thinking clearly) and then walked off to the bus stop.  In the meantime, Trav left for work.  About twenty minutes later when I'm getting ready to take Lauren to class, I start looking for my camera.  It is at this point that I remember I left it on Trav's trunk.  So the first thing I do is look on the driveway and the road to see if my camera is there - it's not.  Then I frantically call Travis and ask him about the camera.  He says he remembers seeing it on his car, but can't remember if he moved it or not (why do men have such terrible memories?).  So during our conversation, he walks out to his car and to his surprise (and mine), he finds the camera sitting right where I left it on the trunk.  I tell him to pick it up and make sure it works, and again to our surprise, the thing works perfect.  Talk about luck!

Craziness ahead!

Tomorrow will be the official start of "craziness" around the house because tomorrow is Lauren's first day of school.  Mornings will no longer be just about getting Ryan ready and out the door, now I'll have two kids to worry about (plus Ellie and Colton and the dog).  Last week we would drop Ryan at the bus stop, then head out for our casual morning walk before the babies went down for naps.  Mornings will now be . . . wake up, eat breakfast, get dressed, go to bus stop, pack everyone in the van, drop Lauren off at school, get home to put babies to bed, then REST - at least until 11:15am when I have to pack up again and go get Lauren from school!  Luckily we are doing a carpool with the neighbors so I'll only have to do this one day a week for preschool and on the days that she has speech class (Tues and Thurs), the bus will pick her up and drop her off in our driveway.  Fridays will now be the only day she has off.  This will be a BIG change for her, but I know she is excited and can handle all that changes that are coming.

On top of Lauren starting school, we also joined a church this morning.  We have been to a few plays at this church that our neighbors attend and after a lot of dragging our feet, we finally got things done today and joined.  The kids are officially signed up for Sunday School and assuming we "pass" all the question and answer stuff next week during "New Member Orientation" (which Travis will conveniently miss due to his brother's bachelor party), we'll be official members of St. John's Lutheran Church - let the good times roll!

Aside from all of this, things are good around the house.  The dog is fitting in nicely with the kids and our day-to-day activities.  He of course has chosen me to be his "favorite" member of the family.  I swear the thing is at my feet everywhere I go, but because he's a good dog and the kids love him, I'm willing to just deal with it (although I hope he takes more of an interest in the kids or Travis pretty soon).
 
Here are a couple of random pictures from this past week/weekend.  We had Troy, Nicole and EJ over for the day on Saturday.  The kids took full advantage of the nice weather by running through the sprinklers - not a bad deal considering if was Sept 10th and almost 90 degrees! 

Terrible

Terrible . . . that is how Ryan described his first day of school - just what every mom wants to hear.  I was so excited to get Ryan off the bus and hear all about his great first day of school, and when I asked the big question, "how was your day?", Ryan responded with, "terrible."  Kind of shocked by his answer (especially because he loved preschool and kindergarten), I asked why.  Here is the list he gave me . . . the day was too long, the chairs were not comfortable, he didn't get to finish his lunch, he spilled chocolate milk on his shirt because he didn't know how to open those "weird" containers that the milk came in, he wanted to play more, and last but not least, he had to sit in the back of the bus on the way home and sneak in his snack because he was starving - wow, clearly the kid has some major adjusting to do to make 1st grade more enjoyable in the days to come.  After hearing all of that (and noticing that he was clearly tired out from the day), I tried to make things better for him.  We talked about how the days won't seem so long once he gets used to it, how it was great that his friend, Sean, helped him open his milk, and how cool it was that he was able to eat his snack on the bus because he was so sneaky, kind of like a spy (eating on the bus is prohibited so he was technically breaking the rules and I am not encouraging him to do it again).  After my little pep talk, Ryan seemed a little more optimistic about the days ahead, but he still wasn't convinced that 1st grade would ever be fun.  This doesn't bode well considering he has many, many years of school ahead of him!  The real kicker came this morning when I went to wake him up for school.  I was hoping he would be excited, let's just say that didn't happen.  The kid wanted no part of it, all he wanted to do was sleep (even though he went to bed before 8pm and usually wakes up at the ass crack of dawn every other day).  It took him a good twenty minutes to pull himself out of bed and get dressed, another twenty minutes to eat breakfast, then it was out the door for another dreaded day of school.  Keeping my fingers crossed that today goes better than yesterday or this could turn into a real long year!

1st Grade

We officially have a first grader on our hands - so crazy!  Our morning started out earlier than usual (at 7am vs whenever you get up), and from the moment everyone woke up until now (which is nap time), we have been busy.  My first priority was getting Ryan ready for his first day of school.  He was less than excited to get out of bed (especially since the kids decided to stay up late in bed playing with the dog - the minute I heard them, I took the Scrappy out of the room and the fun was over), but once he managed to pull himself out of bed, he was super excited!  We did the usual pictures at the door and said our goodbyes, but unlike last year (when I shed some tears and was feeling very uneasy about the whole school thing), watching him get on the bus today was actually pretty exciting.  He is growing up so fast and so many new things are happening in his life but he hardly seems to notice.  He just goes with the flow and is happy.  I can hardly wait for his school day to end so he can come home and tell me about all the new adventures he had!  On the flip side, having him out of the house has been almost relaxing.  Towards the end of summer he was getting "bored" with everything.  It seemed everything activity or game we played was "too boring" or "wasn't fun" for him so not having to deal with trying to please him all day has been kind of nice.  As I'm typing now, everyone (including the dog) is napping so I just get to sit here and worry about making myself happy, no more entertaining a 6 year old - not a bad deal!  I'll leave with some pictures of the 1st grader.  Lauren starts next Monday so we'll have some new "first day of school" pictures next week as well.

I might be going crazy in my old age

For the past couple of weeks, Ryan and Lauren have really been on me about getting a dog, and for those of you out there that know me (and most importantly, my mother), you know that I have always said, "I will NEVER get a dog."  So guess what we got this weekend . . . another fish!  Just kidding, we got a dog - like I said, I might be going crazy (or at least very soft) in my old age.  Scrappy (that was his name when we adopted him, Ryan wanted to change his name to "Fred", I wanted "Harley", in the end, we both lost and stuck with Scrappy because the dog clearly knows his name) is a mix of a Miniature Pinscher and something else.  We got him at a rescue on Saturday morning, and so far, it's going good.  He is a gentle dog who is past all of his "puppy issues" (he is 3 yrs old), is already house trained, and knows a handful of tricks.  I look at it like this, we got a well behaved (so far) dog and didn't have to put in two years of hard work and having my floors peed and pooped on - not a bad deal.  Ryan really likes having his "own" (even though technically it is our whole family's dog) and has stepped up his game a little - he feeds him, plays with him, and most importantly, snuggles with him.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that this was a good decision.  If the kids stay happy and I don't go crazy trying to keep my house clean with a dog living in it, we'll be good.  If one of those two things doesn't go the way I hope, the sh** (literally, I might pick up Scrappy's sh**) might hit the fan.  I'll leave with some pics of the new family member . . . Scrappy Fred Quast (Ryan obviously chose his middle name).  Ryan finally got the brother he always wanted!

Some highlights . . .

I haven't done a great job at keeping up lately so this post will be a "highlight" post of stuff that has been going on in the past week.

I'll start with Ryan . . . it has been a busy week for this almost 1st grader.  First up, he finally (after about 6 months) saved enough money to buy his first Leapster game on his own.  His piggy bank had $21 and some odd cents.  That money coupled with the $5 off coupon on any game I had was just the right amount to get him his coveted Leapster game.  So I loaded everyone into the van and headed for Target.  When we got there, he had a dilemma - does he get the Madagascar game or the Scooby Doo game?  Oh to have the problems of a 6 year old!  Anyway, when it came down to choosing, he went with the Scooby Doo game so off we went to check out.  Ryan was so proud to be buying the game on his own.  He had his little plastic baggie full of dollar bills and change and his coupon in hand.  When the final total came up, it was $21.71.  He gave his baggie full of money to the cashier along with the coupon and after all of her counting, he came up $.71 short.  He had a look of terror when he turned to me and said, "Mom, I don't have enough money to buy my game - what should I do?"  It was literally one of the cutest things ever!  Not wanting to crush his dreams of having the game, I offered up the additional $.71 from my own personal savings.  You should have seen the look of pure joy on his face when I offered this wonderful gift!  You would have thought I just gave him a free pass to buy anything in the store he was so excited!  He took the change and said to me, "Mom, I promise to pay you back - I'll do any chore you want.  Thanks!"  Again, a super cute moment with our kind hearted little boy.  If only $.71 could bring that much joy to everyone.  In addition to his purchase, we also had his open house yesterday in preparation for the first day of school.  I'm pretty sure I was more nervous for this event than he was.  I was concerned for a number of reasons, first being that he would be attending a new school.  I wasn't sure how he would navigate a new building, but to my utter delight, the new school was set up exactly like his old one so finding his way around was no big deal.  After that fear left, I was then more focused on my issues.  First grade brings new issues that Kindergarten never did  . . . . lunch money accounts, activity fees, gym shoes, the list could go on.  But after visiting the school, everything fell into place and I am more than confident that both Ryan and myself will be able to handle everything that 1st grade throws at us!

Then there's Lauren.  This little girl never stops surprising me with the stuff that comes out of her mouth.  And clearly, I need to start watching what I'm saying because most of the stuff she says is an exact repeat of what I've said in the past - not good.  When she talks to the babies (Ellie and Colt, she somehow in her mind has decided that she is in charge, kind of like their second mom), she speaks to them like I do.  If one of the babies is crying, she'll roll her eyes and say, "make it stop."  If one of the babies is screaming because they don't have food on their tray yet, she'll say, "cool your jets baby" or "just give me a sec will you?"  And when she is mad at me, she'll tell me, "you're a sassy pants" or "change yous (her words) attitude Mom."  Of course all of her versions are mumble jumble and sound much cuter, but you get the idea.  The best quote of hers was yesterday though when the neighbor girls knocked on our door for the third time in about twenty minutes.  I was just walking up the stairs from putting Colton down for a nap when I hear Lauren say, "how many times do I have to tell you, we are eating lunch, go away."  And just so people out there know, I do say, "how many times do I have to tell you . . . " to the kids all the time, but I don't ever tell them to go away, she thought of that on her own!  The kid is a riot, a difficult, stubborn, little riot.  We can either get frustrated and mad, or sit back and enjoy the ride - so far, we're enjoying the ride!  On a side note, Lauren also received all of her information for both preschool and speech class - both open houses are next week and then she starts the following week - very exciting!

Now for Ellie . . . she is getting more vocal everyday.  Her vocab includes words such as mama (her favorite I'm sure), dada, pupa (puppy), ah oh, buah (bye), no (when she says this, she points her finger and says, "no, no, no" - she picked this up from the book, "5 Little Monkeys").  She is interacting more with Ryan and Lauren - she hugs and kisses Ryan and plays Barbies with Lauren.  She also continues to try and assert her dominant position in the house over Colton - too bad for her, Colt is starting to fight back and even wins once in a while (you can imagine the devastation of losing a toy - she throws her body on the floor and cries like someone just pinched her).

All in all, it has been a great, but busy end of summer.  We are squeezing in some fun last minute outings (knowing that once school starts, our days will be primarily spent at home), enjoying the last few days of sleeping in, and prepping for the craziness that will start next week!