Christmas Prep.

Bennett was playing "Gold Rush" with my village snow.

Telling Santa that he wants a green combine.

Our House

A house in Waconia that has a light show synchronized to (religious) Christmas music.  

I love the lights that line the street in town at Christmas!

I was busy on Sunday :-)

Bennett's Preschool Christmas Program

Bennett had his Preschool Christmas Program last week.  It was such a nice little program.  The kids did great and they all looked so cute.  Bennett did a really good job and sang with to all of the songs...night and day difference from last years program.  Here are a few (very shaky but very cute) video clips from the program.

 

 

This one made me cry.  I held it together at the program but when we watched them back at home...oh that little boy made my heart melt and made me tear up! 

Tree Decorating

The kids really got into the decorating this year and had fun.  The only problem was that I had the entire bottom covered in the same colored balls.  So after they had a few boxes of ornaments hung on the tree, I secretively shut the other boxes and said that we were done.  And then after they went to bed, I rearranged and finished.  It's such a beautiful tree this year and I love it. 

 

This was Grandma's.  It plays music and the windmill spins which makes the snow fly around.  The day that we were cleaning out Grandma's house, nobody seemed to want this thing so I snatched it up and I'm happy I did.  My kids are too! :-)

Ashley - 35 months

Ashley recently had a doctors appointment and when we got in the exam room she looked around and pointed to something on the wall and said "What's that" I told her it was what the doctor uses to look at her eyes and ears.  She said "Oh, an Otoscope."  The nurse and I were shocked!  I am assuming she learned that from Doc McStuffins.  Maybe a career as a doctor in her future?

 

 

Happy Halloween!

The Saturday before Halloween our town has a Halloween Party that we went to.  It happened that Amy was in town this weekend so they got to see Evan and Grace.  

Then on Halloween night I took the kids out trick or treating.  We went to about 15 houses and came home with 2 buckets of candy.  My favorite was a guy who handed out little tubs of nacho cheese dip!  They both did very good at going up to the door by themselves and being polite.  It not my favorite holiday but they had fun which is what matters.    

Ashley was not in to this at all...as you can tell by her face.

My cute little Minnie Mouse :-)

Bennett, Grace, Ashley and Evan

My sailor man!

Kristen's Volleyball Season

Kristen played on the volleyball team at Bethany this fall.  We had a great time going to 9 of her games.  Ashley tagged along with me for the hour trip to almost all of those.  Bennett didn't have quite as much interest and only went with to one.  Her team didn't have the best winning record but Kristen herself had a good year.  She was a starter so it was fun to get to watch her play a good majority of the games.  

Laura came to one of the games because they were recognizing Laura's volleyball team from when she played there.

4 yr. Preschool (4 years 10 month)

Bennett started his 4 year old Preschool this fall.  He is loving it again this year.  And boy oh boy has he grown up and matured since last year!  Both of the teachers have told me this over the past couple months and my mom has also come home from school with stories from his teachers saying the same thing.  I'm proud of how great he is doing.

Every week they are concentrating on a different letter in the alphabet.  Every week we have a letter page to do at home where we find things that begin with that letter and glue on the page.  I don't really get any magazines so we've been using Internet clipart alot to help us with this.  He does not get the concept that Apple begins with A etc. but by the end of the week with that letter it seems he is starting to pick up that letters sound.  He just finished up H week.

He is doing a great job at writing letters now too!  He has learned to write every letter in his name now...not hard when he only needs to learn 4 letters :-).  And he is learning to write the letters of the week also.

He loves cutting, gluing, painting and he's starting to get more of a liking of coloring.  He isn't really a drawer yet and only draws faces, which take up the whole page which means we all have very short legs and arms haha.

He is singing constantly!  This is a huge change from last year.  He does sing and participate in his class now but I'm still curious if he'll actually sing in front of a group like in front of church.

We just recently found out that his school is changing their Kindergarten program to a all day, every day Kindergarten verses M-W-F which it always has been.  Boy will that be a change for us next year!...going from 5 hours a week to 5 days a week!  He is doing a great job this year and it has been fun to watch him get excited about it.  He loved going last year too but this year he's seems like a big boy rather than a little 3 year old.

First Day of 4 yr. Preschool

Field Trip to the Apple Orchard

He has 19 in his class and 2 teachers

Ashley - 2 yrs. 9 mo.

Reading Books:  Ashley really loves looking at books and "reading" them.  If there is a book that I've read to her a few different times, she tells me she'll read to me.  And she does pretty good at remembering what happens in the story and reading it to me.  She also has this thing that when she's looking in books, any girl - whether big or little or white or black is "Ashley" and any boy in the book is Bennett and any parent looking figures are Mike or I.  And, any gray-haired, cane in hand grandma looking figures is my mom haha. 

Singing:  She is really getting good at singing and it's so cute!  Her favorites include the ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle, The Wheels on the Bus and Happy Birthday.  Bennett is learning new songs at school this year and he is become way more vocal with his singing too and is willing to sing them in front of us at home so Ashley is picking up on some of those already too.

 

Puzzles:  Ashley loves puzzles and is very good at them!  Any 9 or 12 piece puzzle is too easy for her and she'll have it done within a minute.  We have advanced to the 24 piece puzzles and even the puzzles with weird shapes in them.  She needs alittle help getting started on these but once a couple pieces are put together she can do the rest.  We have a couple of 64 piece ones and she can do quite a bit of these but she'll usually get stuck and need alittle help.  It's pretty amazing to watch her whiz through these.  My mom told me that I was like that at this age too. 

 

Potty Training:  Uftda.  This has been quite the process.  We have been going hardcore potty training since July (if not even earlier).  And we have been diaper free for alittle over a month now.  I'd love tell you she was totally trained but that's not the case.  She will go every time we take her.  And she can go by herself if we tell her to or bribe her to but, if we don't take her or remind her, she will wet.  There were many many many days where she wet 4-5 pairs of undies a day.  I haven't had a day like that for awhile and the past couple of days she's been really good so I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that she's almost got it.  I also stopped diapers overnight and she had been in undies for that too.  I always wake her up around midnight right before I go to bed and then Mike wakes her up around 5:00am before he leaves for work and then at 8:00am when she wakes up, she is usually totally dry.  She had such an interest at this at such an early age that I though she'd be super easy to potty train - boy was I wrong! 

ABC's:  She loves the alphabet and is constantly pointing out letters when she sees them. ...on the step stool, on people's shirts, on signs, in books etc.  She knows them all and I feel like because of her love for letters, it should be pretty easy to teach for to write and read.  ...Speaking of writing, we're still trying to figure out if she is right or left handed.  One second she'll be writing or coloring with her right, the next second she'll switch over to her left. 

Kiddos Funnies

My kids are constantly saying the craziest things but I never think of writing them down.  But, here are a couple of cute and funny things that my kids have said in the past couple months that I was able to jot down.

Bennett came into my bedroom one morning while I was getting dressed and he said "Mom, you have pretty underwear!"  They honestly aren't anything special haha.

This spring when I was working on some stuff for Kristen's graduation I had one of her baby pictures on our computer.  Ashley was sitting in my lap and looked at the baby and I told her how that was a picture of Kristen when she was a baby.  Ashley replied with "That's baby Kristen on the computer?"  I said, "Yeah, can you believe it?"  She said "You're kidding me!"

Ashley was getting into her cozy coop car outside and then she quick stopped and got out and said "Oh wait, mom me need money!" 

Bennett and I went for a walk/bike ride one night this summer and we were getting attacked by mosquito's.  Bennett said "They are going to give me bug polka-dots."

Ashley peed her underpants for the 2nd time within an hour and I said "Ashley I am not happy with you.  I am getting upset."  She shook her finger at me (with an attitude) and said "You be fine!"

Ashley had a play cup and handed it to me to have a "drink".  I said "mmmm is this coffee or hot cocoa?"  "Juice"  I asked what kind of juice - expecting her to say apple juice.  She said "Tomato juice."  Mmmm yum.

I overheard Ashley saying "Hi, welcome to McDonalds.  How many I help you?" 

We woke up one morning to it raining and Ashley said "It's raining!  Build a snowman?"

Bennett was looking at a picture of his new baby cousin Tyeden and I said to him "Maybe some day mom and dad will have another baby."  He said "nahhhh let's have more kitties instead!"

Ashley was pushing around her baby doll stroller and said "Aura's (Laura) baby can go in my stroller?"  I said "No, I think Laura will get her own stroller for the baby."  She said "Ohhh that's awesome!!"

Ashley was just having one of those days...I said, "Ashley, you're just full of drama today."  She said "No, my tummy full of pizza."

I was trying to get Bennett ready for bed one night.  Earlier on in the night the kids were playing with the play food - particularly the eggs for some reason.  Well, after he had his pjs on, all of a sudden he put all the eggs on a pile on the floor, crouched overtop of them and sat down on them.  Trying not to laugh I asked him what he was doing and he said "There are baby chicks in the eggs and I have to sit on them to keep them warm so that they hatch."  He proceeded to sit there for a few minutes but I was getting alittle impatient and wanted him to go to bed.  So he picked up his eggs and took them to bed with him.  I had them all tucked in nicely but then about half and hour later he came upstairs to go to the bathroom...carrying all 4 of the eggs with him.  A few hours later that night when I went downstairs to check on him and turn his light down, I found him all curled up in the fetal position and the eggs were tucked right in there by him too staying nice and warm.  :-)

The Hier House

Laura and Chris moved into their new house on Labor Day.  It's a cute and really nice starter house for them and their new little addition.  It is a 2 bedroom house and of course the only room I forgot to take a picture of is the baby room!

Bedroom

Master Bath

Main Bath

Kitchen

Attached Dining Room

Living Room

Loft Room (which will eventually be more bedrooms if/when they need them)

Backyard