Taylor Swift

Friday Caroline had a presentation to make at school.  It was a book report assignment for the 3rd graders in her class but the 1st and 2nd graders could also pick a person and present 3 facts.  It was optional for the younger kids and Caroline chose to do a report.  So last week we went to the library to get a book about Sacagwea.  Then Sunday morning she announced at breakfast that she wanted to do her report on Taylor Swift.  I was not really shocked since she really likes her songs, but surprised that she had changed her mind.  She gave the argument that she already had the blonde hair so it would work.  So Thursday night she and Justin worked on finding facts at the Barnes & Nobles.  So for school Friday you got to dress as your character if you were doing a report.  She learned that Taylor Swift's favorite color is pink (Caroline's too!) and was fine not wearing a sparkly dress that Swift is known for wearing for her performances.  

Taylor has wavy/curly hair so we had to curl her hair.

The pink sparkly shirt with a  sparkly heart on the front, sparkles on the back pockets of her jeans, a pink sparkly belt, and pink cowboy boots completed the Taylor look!  The button on her shirt says "hi, I'm Taylor Swift."

Her teacher said she did very well on her presentation.  Most kids they couldn't hear but the teacher said they were able to hear her.  Justin and I were proud that she wanted to do the report, thought about who she wanted to do, and then presented in front of her class so well.

Way to go Caroline!  You did a great job as Taylor Swift.

Learning to ride a bike

Caroline has reached a big milestone today.  She rode a bike without training wheels for the first time!!  She has been practicing her balancing using a balance bike.  It is a bike that doesn't have a chain or pedals. You can see how it is done in the video.  She had a big bike but it was so big that her feet couldn't touch the ground when she was siting on the seat.  So we decided after mastering the balance bike she needed a smaller bike so she could feel comfortable riding without training wheels.  So she got one for her birthday.  With the super busy day we had yesterday there wasn't any time to try out the bike.  So this afternoon it was.  She was excited to give it a try and off she went down the sidewalk no problem!  It was so great to see how easily she did the transition to a big girl bike.

Here is a video of her on the balance bike.


And here is a video of her on her big girl bike!



So proud of you Caroline!!

Birthday Surprises

Yesterday was Caroline's 6th birthday!!  I can't believe I have a 6 year old.  She started out her morning opening presents before breakfast.  Then it was off to school and her daisy girl scout meeting after that.  She got to take special snacks for both her class and daisy troop.  

 After we picked her up from daisys we got on the highway to head to the airport.  Justin and I had been keeping a secret.  The flight we were going to meet was running late so we stopped about 10 minutes from the airport at a Barnes and Nobles.  We ended up staying at that store for about and hour and a half!  One of Justin and my favorite things to do is go hang out at a book store and it was fun to share that with the kids.  Even though I spent the entire time in the kids section reading books to Will!  Caroline and Justin worked on finding a book about Taylor Swift for her biography report she had to do.  Then it was off to the airport.  When we were driving up to the terminal Caroline asked what we were doing at the airport.  Justin told her we had to get a bag.  (worked for the moment since he had just been on a trip)  He even asked her if she had a spare change of undies in her book bag.  We pull up at the passenger pick-up and Justin takes the kids inside to go to the bathroom.  Then he finds the right baggage claim goround thing and they wait.  Well the carousel starts moving and the kids want to know what bag they should be helping look for.  justin the quick thinking he is tells them a yellow one since there probably won't be a yellow bag and they can keep looking until they surprise comes out.  Well all of a sudden someone comes up behind them and asks, "are you looking for a bag?"  Will blows the guy off with a wave of his hand and didn't even turn around.  The guy asks again and Caroline turns around thinking she might recognize the voice and then the screams started.  Papa and Nana were standing right behind them!!  They had no idea they were coming and and the bag trick worked!  Caroline thought that was a pretty cool birthday surprise!  Then off to dinner and then home for cake and one more present.

I'm so glad she had such a great birthday and we were able to pull off the surprise of Nana and Papa coming in for the weekend.

Happy Birthday sweet Caroline!  You are such an amazing little girl and we love watching you grow up.  You bless our lives everyday with your wonderful smile.  We love you so very much.

We love Grandparents!

This group of pictures is from back in August.  They are from the weekend dad flew Dennis and Ingrid up for Justin's promotion.  I just love them too because the kids had a blast having 3 out of 6 grandparents at one time!  We had gone out to eat and then gotten ice cream.  Will was having fun going back and forth between Granddaddy and Grandpa.  

Take a picture of me! (He wasn't eating ice cream, they filled a cone with gummy bears for him)

Watching the TV behind me.

Will didn't want either granddaddy or grandpa very far from him at anytime.

Making matching faces

Ran back across to do the same to granddaddy

Ready for a ride with Grandma!

I remember spending so much time with my grandparents and Justin and I really wanted that for our kids too.  The hard part is we live so far away.  It is so nice that our kids love spending time with all their grandparents and ask for them on a regular basis.  We would all love to live closer to the grandparents but the iChat thing is really neat and the kids enjoy that between visits!

Could we be ready?

I think we are pretty ready for the new baby!  I still have a few pictures to put in an album and some baby clothes to wash.  Oh and the wall stickers I bought for the baby's room to hang.  But otherwise we are waiting!  This weekend we got more things crossed off the list.  And another closet organized!  We bought a new dresser, gave it to Will (it has drawers he can open) and moved Will's This End Up dresser into the baby's room.  We also got some wooden cube things from Lowe's and Justin and I spent an exciting Saturday night organizing our closet!  We did go to a friends house for dinner and fun first.  Also this weekend I have made 5 dinners and grilled lots of meat and have it all ready to go in the freezer.  This is the first time I have done this.  With Will we moved when he was about 7 weeks old (and had Susan for 3 weeks!) so I didn't want to have to get rid of tons of frozen dinners.

This is the mess (fun) that the kids made with the box the dresser came in.  They kept saying over and over this is sooo fun!  They even helped clean up.

My closet before.  Justin's side looked identical.

After and so much better!!

Eric we are ready for you whenever you decide you would like to meet us all!!

Monday Monday

So Mondays are boring around my house, if you ask Will anyways!  You see Monday is cleaning day.  Dusting, vacuuming, laundry, cleaning bathrooms, and that sort of thing.  Not something a 4 year old is very fond of anyway.  He is a pretty good helper, I must say, and his favorite is washing the mirrors for me.  I didn't get the bathrooms cleaned but I did get both up and downstairs dusted and vacuumed, 4 loads of laundry washed and folded (2 more are in the machine).  I also switched the kids drawers over from summer clothes to winter.  I also made homemade bread to have with dinner.

The kids enjoyed some water coloring and later some playdough this afternoon.  It keeps them in one spot so they can't mess up all the cleaning that I did earlier!

You can sorta see the flowers on the window.  I stole the idea from my cousin Laura (thanks!).  This is a count down to when I am due.  5 petals and 2 leaves for a week and there is a little more than 3 weeks until my due date.  I did let the kids know that we might not get all the flowers colored before Eric arrives but this was the most it would be!!

You will definitely know how the coloring is going!  Caroline let us know the count down for her birthday is only 10 days!!

fall colors and a belly

Yesterday I mentioned how much better the weather was this year compared to last year.  Friday I pulled over at the end of our street to get a picture of the gorgeous fall colors.

I am a few days late getting the peak color in this picture.  Typically the bushes look like they are on fire and it is amazing when the sun shines on them.  Still a cool picture of the fall colors.

Then here is what my belly is looking like these days.  I took this last night after the kids went to bed.  

36 weeks

pumpkin patch at church

Today the kids and I went to the church to help unload pumpkins.  Last year when we helped unload pumpkins we were wearing toboggans, jackets and gloves!  Much better weather this year.

the kids were a great help making the border out of the little pumpkins

having fun sitting in the wagon.  Will is trying to pull up his hair like the girls!

A portion of the pumpkins in the front yard.

I received lots of comments asking why I was hiding a pumpkin under my shirt today.

Kitty Heaven

Well it took about 3 weeks but the kids finally realized that Jake, our favorite cat, isn't coming home ever again.  Jake was an indoor/outdoor cat and was AWESOME!  He was sweet, cuddly, soft, and loving.  He would bring us gifts of birds and moles to our front or back door on a regular basis.  One of his favorite spots to curl up and sleep was on the top bunk, Caroline's bed.  He was a great carefree, easy cat to have around and he will be missed.  We aren't exactly sure what happened to him but one morning he went out like he usually does and he never came back.  We don't know if he got hit by a car or someone took him.  He was microchipped and had a collar with my number on it.  

Somehow the kids mentioned him on the ride home after picking up Caroline.  I said well, Jakers is in kitty heaven now.  And that started the crying!  They both said how much they loved and missed him and how sweet he was and that he was the favorite.  I made sure that they knew God was taking care of him now and he was just fine.  The seemed to be good with that response.  But the crying continued until we got in the house and I could hug them both.  And then tell them that that was enough crying.  They both wanted another Jakers (caroline wanted to make sure that it was a kitty and Will said it had to be black with a little white on its chest).  I told them one day we would but not for a long time.  See we still have a cat (that we don't want anymore) and a great dog not to mention a new baby coming and a husband deploying next summer.  Now I might be crazy but not THAT crazy.  And grandparents please don't listen to them and get them a kitty.  It will live at your house!!

Jake got along fine with everyone including Miles.

Last year we even took the cat to the beach since we were in the process of moving to MI.  He loved the beach and his big litter box!

Did I mention he was also a very tolerant cat?!  He would let any kid pick him up even if it was upside down.  He was a good cat for kids that's for sure.  He never once bit or scratched at the kids.

So this is the first pet that the kids have lost.  I know it won't be the last either but the first one is always hard.  Have fun catching things in kitty heaven Jakers!!

preschool field trip

This morning I went with Will on his preschool field trip to Westview Orchard.  It was a nice morning (no rain) and Will wore himself out!!

This is his best buddy, Aidan.

View of part of the orchard.  It goes all the way back to the big building in the distance.

The playground area.

Will is crouching near the top in his Yoda hat and blue jacket.

We got to go on a wagon ride, have cider and donuts, and see a few farm animals.  Then the kids played themselves silly.  When we got home Will told me he just wanted to take a nap and went and got in his bed!  He did sleep for about 45 minutes before we had to go get Caroline.  I needed more of a nap than that and it wore me out too!  It was lots of fun and good to get to know some of the other moms and kids from his class.

Wedding pictures

It is an absolutely beautiful day today!  Low 70's and sunny.  The trees are just beautiful and I really enjoy watching them change colors as I run errands around town.  Justin was off today and Will and I have really enjoyed having him home.  Neither kid wants dad to go back to work tomorrow and neither do I.  We have run errands together and he also mowed and cleaned the bathrooms!  With everyone out of the house tomorrow either at school or work it will be quiet for sure.  I just might take a nap after I go to the pool for some exercise!
Here are some pictures from the wedding.  I don't have many and I didn't get to see the slide show at the end of the reception (heard it was great) and can't wait to see them.

My handsome boy in his bowtie!

Before the ceremony.

Checking it all out

Candy appetizers!

Dancing with both his cuties

Will and Margaret waking hand in hand.

If the last picture shows up it is susan and Graham dancing the night away!

One late party and one early party

Yesterday we had a joint birthday party for the kids.  We decided that would be the easiest this year.  Luckily they both wanted the same party so it made it super easy.  Who knows they may want to do a joint party again!

We went to a build-a-bear workshop for the party and all we had to do was watch!

Caroline is adding the fluff to her bear.

Will adding fluff to his bear.

Here the kids are holding hearts that will go in their bears.  They warmed the hearts up, made a wish, and gave them kisses before putting them in the back of the bear.

Then on to the wash/brush/fluff station where there was air coming out of the yellow things and they had brushes to brush their bears.

The party group with their new bears!  Will picked an Anakin outfit and Caroline picked a Leia outfit.

After the party we went down to the first floor of the mall and had cupcakes and koolaid that we brought.  It was so easy not to have to clean up the house or after a party.  The kids love their new bears and had fun at the party too.

After making and dressing their bear it was time to color the  "house".  Will colored one side of his blue of course!

Having cupcakes.  Behind them is a pirate ship that has ghosts on it.  Of the kids sitting on the wall, Will is the only one that isn't 5, but he fits right in size wise huh!

Rehearsal day pictures

Rehearsing the flower girl duties.

Will took this picture.  Dad then asked if he got their feet.

He hadn't so he then did!! You asked dad!

Will also took this one.

And this one.  I gave him the camera to keep him busy.

Having his own fun at the rehearsal dinner.  This picture also makes me laugh.

Visiting with dad.

At the end of the night.  Do they look tired or what?  Will asked, "when are they going to cut the cake, I'm ready for bed!"

These are just from the rehearsal day.  I have more pictures on my phone that I still have to upload.  So more waiting for you guys!  We sure did have a GREAT time and were so glad to be there with all the family and friends.