Lauren is 4!!!

Our first baby girl turned 4 today - obviously she isn't a baby anymore!  It's hard to believe we now have a 6 1/2 yr old, a 4 yr old, and 1 1/2 yr old - what happened to our babies?  In four short years Lauren has definitely made her mark on our family.  She is, and always has been, the most stubborn member of this family (although her Daddy is a very close second, if not the winner sometimes in this category), but at the same time, she is also the most loving and fun little girl!  She'll beat you down with her constant questions and never ending stories, but the minute you need someone to pick you up and make you smile, she is the go to girl.  Sweet and polite with a dash (a rather large dash) or sassiness - that's our girl.  In order to celebrate her big day, we did a few little "celebrations."  The first came over the Thanksgiving holiday with Trav and the Quast family (I was home sick in bed so I missed out on the fun).  She received lots of great gifts and had fun on what she called, "her fake birthday" - thanks to all for the generous gifts - she loves them and couldn't stop telling me all about them.  After that, Trav, myself, and the kids had a small "party" on Sunday night to celebrate.  We brought out the ice cream cake Grandma Donna had bought for Lauren's other party that didn't happen on Friday (again, because I was sick), and had a little celebration complete with candles and singing.  She loved the gawdy, sprinkle filled, purple covered, Princess ice cream cake so thanks for that Grandma - sorry you couldn't be here to celebrate with us.  After cake eating, Lauren opened her gift from us, a purple bathrobe just like mine (well almost, mine is pink and doesn't have a monkey on it, but otherwise they are pretty similar).  She loved it the minute she saw it, but just couldn't remember what it was called.  She referred to it as, "the thing Mom wears in the morning and after showers - you know."  Yes Lauren, I do know, and I can only hope you love your robe as much as I love mine!  With the cake and presents done, the Sunday portion of her celebrations wrapped up, but Monday morning was just the start of more fun (on her actual birthday).  To start the morning off right, I had ordered a dozen helium balloons (or baboons as she calls them) in her favorite color, purple, along with one balloon that says, "Look who's 4 today."  I went and picked them up early Monday morning and snuck into her room where I let them all go.  Apparently I didn't "sneak" as good as I thought I had because during my exit from her room, she woke up and said to me, "Mom, you're waking me up."  I replied simply with, "go back to sleep" and made my way out.  After that I was kind of nervous that I may have ruined her surprise, but when she didn't come out of her room for another half hour, I knew the plan was back on.  When she did finally come out, she came out running and said to me, "Mom, I dreamed about baboons and now I have them, come quickly."  Playing along, I ran to her room with her where she excitedly pointed at all the balloons dancing across her ceiling.  I asked her why she thought she had balloons in her room and she said, "I dreamed them and there they are" - simple as that, if you dream about something, it will happen (god I wish that was true)!  After checking out the balloons, Lauren insisted that we go get Dad and Ryan right away and show them what happened in her room.  Who knew a little idea I saw on the Internet would be such a big hit.  The one downside of course was when Ryan said, "why didn't I get balloons on my birthday?"  Don't worry buddy, you're day will come - now that I've started this tradition, I can't stop with just one of them.  Hopefully it will be as fun and as exciting for the other two when it is their birthdays (or maybe they should just dream about it on any random day and they'll have a room full of balloons!).  After the fun morning, Lauren had to get ready for preschool where she had yet another celebration.  As the birthday kid, you get to be the leader all day and bring treats to share with everyone - she brought M&M cookies and apparently they were a hit.  And finally, when she walked out of preschool, she had her last surprise . . . Auntie!!!  Ash had driven back from CA with Dad over the Thanksgiving weekend and this was her first time seeing the kids - not sure who was more happy, Auntie or Lauren (and Ellie and Colt too - Ryan missed out on seeing her because he was at school all day)!  With all the fun winding down, Ash and I took the kids out for Lauren's birthday lunch and then her "celebrations" officially came to an end.  I hope we were able to give her just a little bit of happiness on her special day - it is the least we could do for all the fun she brings to our family!

Love you lots Lauren!!  Happy Birthday!!

Here are some pictures from the various celebrations . . .

Time for the Christmas tree!

After a couple of days of feeling like crap and being home alone, I was ready to get back into the swing of things.  And what better way to get back to normal than the put up the Christmas tree - talk about fun!!!  The kids were more than ready to assist so once Trav got the tree box out of the garage, we were off.  I put up the tree, the kids took care of the ornaments (if you look real close at the pic below, you'll notice that the majority of the ornaments are right in front and only go up about half way - only as high as their little arms could reach).

While Ryan, Lauren, and myself were busy putting up the tree, Trav and Ellie opted for a more restful approach . . . they laid on the couch and watched (apparently they aren't over Halloween yet - orange and black are out, time for red and green!).

Actually this picture was taken after the tree was already completed, but it wasn't much different from what they really did.  Ellie wasn't so great at hanging ornaments, in fact, she took off more than she put up so having her lay on the couch was actually a good thing.  And Trav isn't much of a decorator, so instead he was the "ornament repair man" - any ornaments missing a hook, he was the man to go to for help.  Overall I think we have a great tree.  It isn't the prettiest, the most colorful, or even in perfect working order (there are a few "dead" spots where the lights aren't working for some reason), but the kids love it and it makes me happy every time I see it so it's a winner in our house!  The countdown to Christmas is on . . . can't believe it is less than a month away!

Thanksgiving

I see it's been a while since I've written, I'll make no excuses other than to say, it's been a rough week or so.  It all started last Sunday night when my eyes started to itch and were getting crusty - not good.  By the time I had went to bed and woke up, I realized things were not normal mainly because I could not open my right eye - it was "glued" shut.  Super, pretty sure this is not right and pretty sure I have the "pink eye" that Ryan supposedly didn't have 2 weeks ago and Ellie "might or might not" have had at her doctor's appointment last week.  Good news I guess is that Ryan never got it, Ellie might have (so they treated her), and I had it for sure.  Nothing like getting a "kid sickness" when you are an adult - super fun!  After my bout with pink eye, we were working on a short week with Thanksgiving coming up.  The plan was for Trav and the kids to head to Gaylord on Wednesday night and spend Thanksgiving with his family while my mom and I hung out at my place (Dad was in CA with Ash getting her ready to drive back home to MN for good and Aaron and Ann were having Thanksgiving with Ann's side of the family), well the plan did not go as planned.  About 4 hours after Trav and the kids left for Gaylord, I finished up my top to bottom cleaning of the house, sat down to enjoy a meal and a drink, then headed off to bed.  By 11:00pm I woke up not feeling so hot.  Pretty soon I was in the bathroom with stuff coming out of both ends (it wasn't pretty).  But afterwards I felt a lot better - maybe I just overate??  No such luck.  By 3:00am I was back at it only this time there wasn't a lot to get out of me so there was lots of dry heaving and spitting - still not good.  By the time I finally got back to sleep (around 5:15am) I was feeling okay.  By 7:30am the next morning I was feeling pretty good.  I called Mom to inform her of my rough night and let her know that she might be walking into a mine field.  We decided it was best for me to eat something and see how I felt.  So I had some toast, let the dog out, checked some email and then gave Mom the call to go ahead and come up because I was feeling good - that was at roughly 8:30-9:00am.  By the time she got here (an hour later), things took a turn for the worse.  I could hardly get out of bed, walking was tough, and throwing up again seemed like a real possibility.  With that news, Mom headed back home (can't blame her for not wanting to hang out with me all day in my condition), I called Trav to tell him to stay in Gaylord, and I headed back into bed.  Before long that toast I ate in the morning came up and I was back to feeling like crap.  The rest of the day I spent in bed other than the three times I got up to let the dog out (coincidentally those are the other three times I threw up).  After that, I went back to bed hoping I would wake up feeling better.  And by the time I woke up Friday I was feeling hopeful that things would get better.  I didn't have that instant feeling of having to throw up, and when I did finally pull myself out of bed, I made it downstairs and back with no problem (trust me, that would not have happened the day before) so things were looking up.  After about an hour of being up, I decided to try another piece of toast - I ate it, I waited, and two hours later, it was still in me - a very good sign!  With that positive news, I made myself get outside to give the poor dog a walk (he was pretty much in the kennel or outside all day yesterday so he was ready to go).  After our short walk I was pretty tired so I laid down and watched a movie on our "Free Starz weekend."  And now I'm typing away.  I'm thinking things will be good today.  I might try some more food here in the next hour or so and then I'm guessing I'll head back to bed.  Trav and the kids are spending one more night at Grandma and Grandpa's house, we ended up canceling our "Friday Thanksgiving" with Mom, Aaron, Ann, and Colton, and so now it's just me and the dog - not exactly the fun-filled family weekend we had envisioned, but if I'm the only one who gets sick out of the deal, we'll take it - there's always next year!  And Miss Lauren's 4th birthday is coming up on Monday so we'll still have lots to celebrate!

The one good thing out of being sick on Thanksgiving . . . while everyone else was stuffing their faces full of delicious food and packing on some weight, I was doing just the opposite - guess that means I don't have to worry about working off those extra pounds!  Still not as fun as being with family, but I'll take whatever positive I can get out of the experience.

Hope everyone had a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!!  I'll leave with a couple pictures of our little pilgrim, Lauren (she made the hat in preschool).

Too soon?

It's never too early for Christmas jammies (especially not matching Christmas jammies for the girls) is it?  Someday (hopefully not soon) the kids won't be so cooperative when it comes to cheesy jammies so I have to enjoy it while I can!

Lauren sings

Lauren has learned some new songs between preschool, speech school, and Sunday school.  Here are a just a few . . .

Dancing!

The girls got out the dance outfits yesterday and put on quite a show for me - check out the pictures (Lauren dressed Ellie all by herself).

18-Month Well-Child Exam

Ellie had her 18-month (about 3 weeks late, but better late than never) exam this morning.  The girl is still growing like crazy and by all accounts is healthy!  Usually I compare her stats to both Ryan and Lauren, but after looking back through their baby books, I realized that I lost Ryan's 18-month numbers so we'll just compare the two girls this time around.

Ellie's stats:  weight: 24lbs 10 oz; 52%, height: 34.12 inches; 98%, head: 19 inches; 90%
Lauren's stats: weight: 28lbs 1 oz; 92%, height: 34.75 inches; 98%, head 19 inches; 90%

So other than the weight being about 3 pounds different, the girls are pretty much the same.  They are both long with big heads - what a perfect combo!  And in comparison to her 15 month check-up, Ellie put on about 1 pound and grew an inch and a half - luckily her head stayed the same size!

The little lady is also "talking" like crazy - her favorite word being, "NO."  You can ask her anything and 99% of the time she'll respond with "no" even if it is something she actually wants.  I'm going to try and get a video of her this week to show off her talents.

Aside from Ellie, the other two kids are staying busy as well.  Lauren has school all the time and is absolutely loving it!  I seriously think school has been the best thing for her.  She went from being the shy, reserved girl to the loud (very loud), excited about everything, center of attention girl - it is nice to see!  Ryan also has school all the time and is less than thrilled.  If he could switch places with Lauren and only have school for a couple of hours a day, he would.  The mornings are getting harder because he all of a sudden can't get up, and when he does get up, he moves at a very slow pace.  Once he does get to school though, he seems to have a decent time.  Although he did tell me that he gets bored because, "all we do is math, and I'm really good at that so it's boring."  When I asked what he should be learning instead of math, he said, "maybe something like drawing, I'm not really good at that, and that would really help me."  If only 6 year-olds could decide on their school curriculum!

A "so-so" weekend

We had high hopes for this weekend . . . meet with the cabinet guy and pick out our bathroom vanity, stain our new patio door, give the yard one last good cleaning, patch the wall downstairs, the list could go on and on.  Well, as life usually goes, things didn't exactly work out as planned.  Friday morning I wasn't feeling great, and by Friday night/Saturday morning, I was feeling real crappy.  Nothing serious, just a good old head cold that makes you feel like crap and want to stay in bed all day - so much for all the work we wanted to get done.  Oh wait, that isn't an option, this stuff needs to get done!  So the five of us (the kids did their part being entertaining each other and giving Trav and I time to work) pulled together and managed to check off  (almost four) things off the list.  The cabinets are picked out, the yard is looking good, and we have a sweet new patio door just waiting to be installed - yay!  It sucks to work when you are sick, but having all that stuff done makes me just a little happier!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

He's gone again

Trav had one final meeting this week that took him out to Colorado for a couple of days so that meant the kiddies and I were left to fend for ourselves once again (the good thing is that Trav usually doesn't travel this much, and when he does travel, it is usually spread out, so these last few weeks are the exception, not the rule).  With  Daddy away, we got right back into the swing of things and started out our week on a very productive note . . . Ryan and I raked and bagged up some more leaves.  I should point out that I didn't let Ryan skip school, but for some reason school wasn't in session on Monday (maybe for Veteran's Day which falls on Friday?).  So with him home, and the babies and Lauren sound asleep (after a long morning of play), the boy, his dog, and I headed out to the backyard for some work.  We managed to fill up the dumpster and one lawn bag before Ryan thought we should call it quits and sit by the tree and rest for a while so that's what we did.  A boy, his dog, and his mom just chillin' by a tree on a sunny fall day - not too shabby for a Monday.  After all of our work, we rewarded ourselves with a movie and some treats until the rest of the household woke up from their naps.  To finish off the day, we headed out to the Y for some exercise, went back home and made "Grands Mini Pizzas" (they were delicious in case anyone is wondering and super easy and fun to make!) for dinner, had some nice warm baths, read a few books, and then called it a night.  When Ryan woke up on Tuesday morning and I told him he had to go to school, he was less than pleased.  He asked why  we couldn't just have another day like yesterday to hang out and have fun and all I could say was, "because."  I actually wouldn't have minded another day of bonding with him.  It seems like the busier he gets, and the busier Lauren, Ellie, and Colt are during the day, the less time the two of us get to spend together and I kind of miss it.  At least we have Thanksgiving break to look forward to!

I'll leave with a quick picture of our mini pizzas . . . this was the second set of 4 we made.  Each of the kids made their own and ate an entire pizza which translates to a successful meal in our house!  Like I said, they were delicious!

 

Is it Christmas yet?

My plans for this weekend changed a few times . . . first I was going to help my mom do some cleaning and organizing, then I was going to stay home with the kids while Trav went to the lake, and finally, I was going to stay home with the girls while Trav took Ryan to the lake - so which scenario actually happened?  None.  In the end, Trav went to the lake with Ryan and Lauren (and the dog too) while Ellie and I ventured south to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa Loken.  With no real plans to do anything in particular, I wasn't expecting much from the weekend . . . boy was I wrong!  It turned out the "I only have one kid" weekend worked out great for me to get some shopping done (my main goal was to get Lauren's birthday gift).  Well, as with most things, my quick little shopping trip turned into much, much more.  When the weekend was all said and done, Grandma and I made just two short trips to Mankato and purchased all of my Christmas gifts for the kids!!  Yes, that is right, I am officially done Christmas shopping (well at least for the kids, I'll still have a few gifts to pick up here and there, but the "heavy lifting" is done).  Like I said, we started out small (one birthday gift), but once we got rolling (and the discounts kept adding up), it would have almost been stupid for us to stop.  There were little to no crowds, there were great sales (at least on the items that were on my list), I was almost kid-free, and I had a shopping helper to boot - talk about ideal!  And the best part about all of it . . . when everyone else is going crazy trying to get there lists complete in the freezing cold, I'll be sitting at home sipping on a nice warm cocoa - such a great thing to look forward to!  As you can tell, I'm pretty excited (and I'm pretty sure the kids will be too once they open their gifts in just 49 short days)!

After reading this, you might start to wonder where Ellie was during all of this shopping craziness.  Well, as luck would have it (or not really luck because she always sleeps a lot), she went down for naps right before we left on our shopping trips, and woke up right after (or shortly after) we returned (neither trip was more than 2 1/2 hrs long and she usually sleeps for 3 hrs).  And while she was napping, Grandpa Jim was "babysitting" (I use that term loosely because although he did check on her during our outing on Sat, Sunday proved to be too much for him and I'm pretty sure he did more napping than "babysitting" - oh well, at least they were both well rested when we returned).  So there you have it, Ellie napped, Grandpa "babynapped" (a new term combining babysitting and napping all in one - only very skilled people should attempt this), and although things went pretty smooth, Ellie didn't want to Grandpa off too easily so she let him in on the fun of changing one of her "teething" diapers - let's just say it ain't pretty and Grandpa would be more than happy if he never had to experience that again!

So thanks Grandma for being my shopping partner, and thanks Grandpa for babysitting (and Ellie says thanks too for wiping her butt, she really appreciates it especially because she knows how horrible her diapers smell)!

Until next time . . .