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 . . .