Christmas Picture

I attempted to get a nice picture of the kids on Christmas Day in their Christmas clothes but it didn't work out so well.  I bribed them to stand still by letting them "hold" a candy cane from the tree.  Ashley was not about to wait before eating hers!

I bought Bennett the vest at Target for $9 and he already had the white shirt and pants.  I got Ashley's dress from Kohl's for $9 also.

 

Christmas Prep.

Here is a quick post about things we have been up to during the past couple of weeks getting ready for Christmas!

Bennett and I met some friends in Waconia for a tree-lighting ceremony in the park.

At this point, I only had the lights on the tree.  But Bennett thought it was the best thing ever and took his coloring book and laid down on the floor in front of the tree.  Totally picture worthy!

Tree with the room lights off.

 

Finished tree 2012

 

Santa had his annual visit to NG.  Bennett liked him but was alittle shy and didn't want to tell Santa his list.  Ashley just tolerated Santa and wasn't too thrilled but there were no tears. 

Assembling our first ever Gingerbread House

 

Our finished product

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MejDXRM7cI&feature=youtu.be

This link is a song from Bennett's Preschool Christmas Program.  I wish I could tell you how wonderful he did but, unfortunately I was sick with the flu that day and missed it!...still bummed about that!  Even though I know that Bennett knew all of the songs that they sang, he didn't participate at all.  This video shows one of the songs and for some reason, he decided to stand backwards during this song.  If you fast-forward to about the last 30 seconds, he is oohhhh so cute!  I guess I'm not too surprised that he didn't sing or do the actions but to tell you the truth, I really don't care - I'm just happy he stood still and didn't decide to run around or sit down or do silly things.

 

Helping Grandma make cookies!

 

A couple of my friends and I went to make a Christmas Centerpiece again like we have done in the past.  It really is fun to do and looks great on my table.  (plus it gave me an excuse to clean a stack of papers that have been on my table since May - yikes no joke!)

 

Here are the art projects that Bennett did in preschool for Christmas.  He was so proud of every one of them!  Personally, I'm happy he is able to do this there and that I don't feel as bad when we don't get anything like this done at home!!!  I really like the light strand - it's done with his fingerprints.  I am also so happy that we are able to send him to a Lutheran school so that he is able to learn what the real meaning is behind Christmas - I couldn't imagine if all he came home with was Santa's and snowmen!

 

So, now you know everything that we've been up to in the past month getting ready for Christmas!  I wish you all a wonderful next couple of days as you celebrate Jesus Birthday!  Christmas blessings to you!

Mike & Rachel Updates and Pictures

It has been forever since I've let you know exactly what Mike and I are up to these days.  I'll start with Mike:

 

Mike is busy.  There, that pretty much sums it up.  But, I'll go alittle more in depth for you.  He is still working full-time at the golf course.  This was a very good year for them - decent weather and tons less drama than other summers.  Last summer mid-season they fired the Superintendent (main guy on the grounds crew) so this summer seemed alot better and he was alot less crabby when he would come home.  He is also still working part-time at Domino's as a delivery driver every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night.  Then, he is on his second year of night classes for computer networking and some repair.  These classes are twice a week.  So, most weeks, we only see him 2 nights a week.  That doesn't leave him much time to see the kids, see me, get his things done around here and get my to-do-list done hehe.  He could be done with the night classes after this year but he says he still might try to get a couple of courses done next year to complete a certificate...or something like that. 

 

I am busy too but with completely different things than Mike.  I am still full-time mom and part-time at the church as the secretary.  I go in to the church office twice a week for about 3 hours each day to print out the bulletin and do the administrative duties.  But, I do alot of the bulletin work like proof-reading, typing etc, at home a night or two after the kids are in bed.  Total I spend about 8 hours a week with this job.  During the time that I am at the office, depending on the time or year, they are usually at my mom's house.  During the winter when Jon is laid off of work, I take them over to stay with him during those couple of hours.  Then in the spring when he goes back to work, they come in to work with me until Kristen and my mom are off of school for the summer.  Then in the fall when they go back to school and before Jon is laid off again, they come in with me.  When they do have to come in to work with me it's obviously alittle harder for me to actually focus and get my work done but, they do go play in the preschool room most of the time so they are at least occupied.  But then, I have an added job of cleaning up that room at the end of the week.  Anyways, I really do like this job.  It's gets me out of the house and gives me something to do.  Plus a small added paycheck is always nice.  It is kind of exciting to be in charge of so many things that go on in our church too - I pretty much have a hand in every organization or event that happens.

 

My full-time mom job keeps me pretty busy too.  Twice a week I am running Bennett to and from preschool which took a couple weeks to get used to.  Keeping my house clean is pretty much non-existent.  As fast as I can clean up the toys, more get played with and dumped out.  My goal is to keep the living room and their bedrooms clean and just let the family room go and only pick that up a couple times a week.  It just is a waste of my time to pick it up daily.  I think Mike finally agrees with me on that too which is nice so that I don't feel bad when it's a mess.  Cooking is also pretty non-existent these days.  I pretty much only cook an actual meal the nights that Mike is home.  It is a huge waste of my time to cook an actual meal for just me and the kids.  They are pretty picky and only have a couple of bites of the main dish and I don't feel like eating leftovers for 3 meals.  So, we either have frozen pizza type food or go to my mom's for supper...a huge added bonus of living only 4 minutes away from them!  If she's cooking for 5 people anyways, what's 1 more...the kids don't count since they eat so little.  It's a huge blessing a couple nights a week for me to do this! 

 

It's pretty boring but that sums up our lives.  There.  Now I don't have to do this for another 6 months :-)   

Ashley Update - 1 Year 11 Months

Ok so between computer problems and then blog problems, I'm finally getting on here to get Ashley's pictures and latest happenings posted about...

I can't believe Ashley is almost 2 already!  How did that happen so fast?  She has been growing and maturing so much lately - she's a little girl and has no part "baby" left in her.  Here are a couple of her latest and greatest:

She is talking constantly! (much different from Bennett at this age). Most of the things she tries to say we can understand - even if it is her own version of the word. When she is talking she is mostly saying 2-3 word sentences but I have counted a few occasions lately where she has said up to 5 words at a time which is great! Her favorite phrase is "No Mom, No!"...ugh.

We are occasionally starting to work on potty training with underwear. I can't get her to go on the potty chair at all yet but she comes to tell me every time after she has peed and has wet her training pants. She has also brought me a diaper multiple times and tells me 'poop' when she needs to be changed. If she can tell me when she is wet or brings me a diaper when she has pooped her diaper and wants to be changed, I am hoping that she'll be pretty easy to actually train.

She really like pretending to cook with her play food. She will bring me a play plate, pot or cup for me to "eat". Her other new favorite thing to play with is Barbies. Kristen got out all of our old Barbies and that is now her favorite thing to do at my moms house. I feel like she should be too little to play with them but she loves it.

Right now she is about 23.5 lbs (my petite little girl!), wearing size 18-24 month clothes, size 5 shoe and size 4 diaper.

Bennett's Latest - 3 yrs. 10 mo.

Wow it has been an extremely busy fall around here and it has been forever since I've gotten a chance to get on here!

So Bennett's second day of Preschool he was supposed to bring in a picture of his family to show the class.  Well, when I had to actually search for a picture of us and had to go all the way back to last May at Laura's wedding and grab a terrible picture of the four of us from that day, I decided enough is enough, we need family pictures done!  I mean seriously, it had been over a year since we had a picture of all of us taken - Ashley was still a baby!!!  So, that was the last straw - I called up my friend Melissa to see if she'd take some outdoor pictures of us this fall.  I don't want to show you too many of the actual family ones since they will obviously be a Christmas Card picture but, here are a couple of Bennett's.  (I will get to Ashley's latest happenings and a few pictures of her also in a couple days). 

Bennett has been going to preschool on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and he LOVES it.  Some days he even has a little fit when I'm there to pick him up because he doesn't want to go home.  So far he has had units on family, apples, shapes, fall, pumpkins, and next weeks unit is pilgrims.  It's a struggle to get him to actually talk to me about what he did when we get home which frustrates me alittle just because I'm so curious.  But I know he's learning alot and having fun.  I've caught him singing a few times which is fun cause he NEVER would sing anything with me when he was "little".  One of the weekly notes that was sent home said that they are working on the songs for their Christmas program already so I'm getting really excited to see how cute this is!

He has been really catching on to his counting and he seems to really like numbers.  He can count to 14.  It's kinda cute because when we ask him to count he will get up to 14 and then say the following, "10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14!!!".  He gets stuck on fourteen but knows that there are lots of numbers that come after that so with each 14 that he says, it gets louder and more excited.  He also really likes clocks and has been trying to figure out the time.  If it is on an hour, he can usually tell me what time it is.  And he knows that when the little hand is on the 6, it's nap time or bed time - 12:30 and 8:30.

He really takes after Mike in the techie department.  We have an Amazon Kindle and it amazes us how Bennett can navigate through it and play the games or do the puzzles and how he understands all of it.  I can guarantee you that Mike and I wouldn't have been able to do any of that at 3 years old.

Bennett still loves to play with tractors and cars, he really has fun playing with sand and water, and his interest in tools and musical instruments continues.  The only reason he really liked going to all of Kristen's volleyball games is because he might get to watch the pep band play!!!  - he's obsessed with the drums and cymbals. 

(those of you who really know Bennett know that he is full of facial expressions - this picture is a classic Bennett face)

Not really sure why he had his hand on his face like this but it's still cute.  He looks so big!

Living Room Paint

 After looking at an off-white wall in my living room for 6 years, I FINALLY got brave enough and got enough ambition to get my room painted!  It is a color called Parking Meter which is a sage green/silverish color.  I absolutely love it!  After the painting was done, I did alittle furniture rearranging too which also helped spruce up the room.  Here are a few before and after pictures. 

Before - Right side

Before - Left side

 

After - Right side

 

After - Middle

 

After - Left

Preschool

Bennett started 3 year old Preschool today at Zion.  He was pretty excited and had no problem with me leaving him.  His class has 12 kids which is the max that they would accept.  One of the nice things for me is that I know a good handful of the kids and parents in his class already.  I actually went to grade school and high school with 2 of the mom's!  And, his teacher Mrs. Aurich is a family friend of ours - she taught me piano lessons for years! 

His class is on Tuesday's & Thursday's from 8:30-11:00am.  During that time they will be doing individual and group play, projects, Jesus time, snack time and a theme for each week (this week's theme is about getting to know each other).  They are also being taught some of the basics about going to school like walking instead of running, walking in a line, raising hands, sharing etc. which will be great for him!  I got there a couple of minutes early to pick him up and peeked in on the 'walking in a line'.   

Like I said, Bennett had no problem with me dropping him off and leaving him.  Ashley on the other hand...  After I dropped off Bennett, Ashley and I were going to go to Target during the time that he would be at school.  For at least 5-10 minutes, she was in her car seat, almost in tears, saying Bennett, Bennett over and over again.  And then when we were on our way back to pick him up she kept repeating "Bennett up, Bennett up".  She has so much fun when he is around and she doesn't know what to do without him! 

I am really excited about this for him.  I think the socialization will be great for him.  And I'm excited to watch him continue to learn and excel!

 He was ready to go with his new Mater shirt and Thomas backpack. 

 

Mom, enough with the pictures - put the camera away!