Highlight of her week

Last week, Sadie and Blake and I were finally able to visit my good friend Steph and meet her little girls, Claire and Ellie. Steph had twin girls almost 8 weeks ago and also has a 2yr old son Charlie. Despite the fact that they only live about an hour and a half away, we still hadn't been able to make it down to see them until last week. The kids had colds for awhile that I didn't want to expose the girls to, but Sadie was quite persistent in asking to meet Claire and Ellie. And since they were born at 36 weeks and weighed under 5lbs at birth, they were still pretty small when we finally went to see them!

Sadie loved being the one to hold Claire until she fell asleep. Steph and I were sitting in the kitchen and I looked over a few times to see Sadie lifting Claire up to kiss her and give her a hug...it was so precious!

Sadie, Claire, Charlie and Eleanore

(gotta love that Claire is smiling up at Sadie)

Sadie was in heaven! I told Steph if she ever needed an extra helper to hold one of the girls, she knew who to call! It was great for me to see Steph and be able to catch up with her as well (as much as you can catch up with twin babies, a 17-mos. old, a 2 year old and a 4 year old). Actually, everyone did great but Blake continues to be the most difficult even out of that group. Partly it's his age, but mostly it's his personality. Steph, like everyone else who spends much time around Blake, was amazed at his level of activity. And in keeping with his tradition, he made sure to break something before we left! (He got in to their dog Lily's water dish and picked it up and dropped it, shattering it into a bunch of ceramic pieces and soaking everything around him.) So thankful to have such understanding friends, though! And if they'll have us, we will be back.

Short Pants

I took these pictures last month to show what a difficult time I am having keeping clothing in my kids' closets that actually fits them.....

Sadie has really grown so much this year....over 6 inches!!

(Matt measures the kids on their walls and they love seeing how much they have grown since the last measurement!)

...needless to say, we have had several pairs of 'short pants' this year!!!

Growing up

It seems like Wyatt has 'grown-up' more this year than any other year of his life. And I am sure the primary reason for that has been Kindergarten. He has gained so much confidence, learned so much and made so many friends that have contributed to him maturing in his 6th year of life. And part of that growing up also means that he has his own opinion about things.....

like his hair!

We were getting ready for school one day last week and when I asked him to go in the bathroom and brush his teeth and comb his hair, he came out with a mohawk. He initially did it, I think, to see what my reaction would be. But since I have chosen to choose my battles and I actually found it kinda cute, I offered to let him wear it to school for just one day. I also thought that this was a big step for a kid who used to be so incredibly shy---to wear a hairstyle to school that would really stand out! And he was so excited that I was willing to let him do it--and help him 'style' it a bit!

I was so proud of him....not for his choice in hairstyle but for being confident enough to wear it differently than other kids. And Matt and I are also SO proud of him for this....

His 'Buzz Card'. (Let me explain: Wyatt's school has this card system called "Skillzy Cards" that the kids earn for various accomplishments throughout the year. Wyatt has about 10 of them for things like counting to 100 by 2s, accomplishing reading goals for each month, etc. But there are some cards that aren't as easy to receive.....like Student of the Month and Buzz Cards. These cards are given out based on a student's behavior in class and how they treat others.

Starting in February, each morning at our family devotions when we all share prayer requests, Wyatt's prayer requests revolved around wanting to earn a Buzz card or Student of the Month. The Student of the Month cards are awarded each month for the student who exemplifies the character quality that they are focusing on that particular month. Buzz cards are awarded for a student who displays three qualities: work, respect, belong. And last week, Wyatt came home with one! He was SO excited to show me and I was incredibly proud of him. We had spent a lot of time praying about this and helping him focus on his behavior when no one is watching. And we talked about how important it is to act this way even if there is no 'reward', but it was so encouraging to him when he got it! SO PROUD!

And finally.......Wyatt's AWANA Awards banquet.

(He's 3rd from the right...taken with my phone since I forgot my camera and we were on our way to baseball practice right after)

Wyatt started AWANA this year at a church near our house with his friend Gracie, but after 2 weeks Gracie quit going and Wyatt wanted to as well. We took the opportunity to teach him the importance of a commitment and that he had said he wanted to do it this year, so we would do it for a year and if he didn't like it, he didn't have to continue. But he did need to stick with it for the year. And he ended up loving it!!

He earned his 1st book award for finishing his first book, which means that he memorized 35 verses this year! 35!

I'm sure I will have more things to post as his school year is coming to an end, but we are so proud of all he has accomplished! We love you Wyatt!

More on Blaker.....

Blake had a rough winter when it came to sickness/infections/etc. So unfortunately, he spent a fair amount of time in doctor's offices. But as a result, he LOVES playing with out doctor kit and knows how to use each tool...he'll listen to your heart, look in your ears and your mouth, and even your eyes. It has turned into a family event...we all sit around and let Blake examine us!

(excuse the photo quality, I took it with my phone)

And his other latest trick.....hiding!

This is one of his 2 favorite hiding places (the other is underneath the desk in our office area).

And he is actually really great at hiding! He will sit perfectly still and perfectly quiet until you find him (which is a bit odd since he never sits still any other time and he isn't quiet at all.) However, his brother and sister are horrible at hide and seek because they can't keep quiet for the life of them, but he is absolutely silent.

And fast! He is so fast...he will grab something he isn't supposed to have and, depending on what floor he is on, will run into one of his 2 hiding places and sit perfectly quiet and still until I get him. And I actually have to run to catch him!

Is winter over?

It's May 16th and I believe we can now safely say that winter is Minnesota is over. But just last week we had temperature highs in the 30s...so it hasn't been warm here for very long! And we had the 4th snowiest winter on record in Minnesota. That being said, I just wanted to document the fact that Matt and I together shovelled over 86.8 inches this winter. That's over 7 feet of snow!! And I say over 86.8 inches that we shovelled because we get HUGE snow drifts out front of our house that resulted in shovelling more snow than directly fell from the sky. We have had many friends and family kindly tease us about not having a snowblower and I can't say we'll never get one, but Matt and I actually enjoyed it this winter. There were several nights where we would put the kids to bed and head back outside in the quiet and cold white winter wonderland and shovel together, talking and laughing. It was a great workout and we are thankful to be in good enough health to be able to do it as well. So although we are hoping not to see snow for several months, we did enjoy the 7+ ft of snow this winter and the amount of work we put in to keeping our driveway clear.

Proof

This is just about the only time that Blake is still.....

And he is so sweet when he is! I was once heard a mother say that God created naps for mothers to fall back in love with their children and this couldn't be more true than with Blake! He can be a lot of work and exhausting, but just look at that sweet boy!

Princess Sadie

I am so behind on posting so I am attempting to catch up this week! Several weeks ago Sadie and I watched the Royal Wedding together. I had DVRed it so we could watch it Saturday morning while Matt took the boys to Wyatt's baseball pictures. So we made some tea and scones, used my good china and sat in our pajamas and watched away.
Sadie was amazed that we were watching a 'real princess' wedding and loved every moment of it. Afterwards, she asked if I would tie her blankie around her so she could have a 'dress that touches the floor' (i.e, a train).

Later on that day, Sadie began asking me more questions about weddings and dresses and asked if I had a 'dress that touches the floor' and a veil. I told her that I had my wedding dress upstairs in my closet and her eyes just lit up. It was as if she looked at me and said, "There has been a wedding dress in my house all these years and you never told me?" She was beyond excited as we went upstairs and I got the box out of my closet and opened it up.

I didn't let her try the dress on (although she wanted to), but I did let her wear the veil and she was grinning from ear to ear. Just beaming! She walked around with her blankie tied on her waist and wearing the veil, pretending to be a princess. She even got in our master bathroom tub and pretended it was her carriage. I am telling you, she watched every single detail of that Royal Wedding and was replicating it in our house!

She wanted Wyatt to pretend to be the prince but he wasn't having it.....not one bit!

After Sadie had walked around in my veil for awhile, I realized that the kids had never seen our wedding DVD. (Now I have to say that this was one of those moments where I was so thankful to have listened to the advice of other people when I was planning my wedding. I really didn't care about a DVD of our wedding at all and it seemed like a waist of money at the time, but we had a videographer do it and in this moment, I couldn't have been more thankful. I realized that this moment was why I had a DVD of our wedding.....the look on my 4 year old daughters face as she anticipated seeing her Daddy and Mommy getting married was so precious and I loved being able to show it to her.)

So Matt, Wyatt, Sadie and I (Blake was sleeping) watched our wedding DVD and it was actually really fun. The kids got to see our wedding day and all the people who were there. They made several comments about who looked different, who looked the same and how they thought Matt and I had changed.....sweet kids said I looked the same and Daddy looked the same but he used to have a lot more hair! It was entertaining, fun and a really special time we got to spend with our kids. And if I hadn't listened to my mother and gotten the DVD, we never would have had that time together. So thanks Mom!!