January birthday girls! Dane starts Pre-School

Happy Birthday Brynne!

Brynne had such a fun 6th birthday!  I love my kids birthdays and the motivation it gives me to help them feel extra special and to remember how far they have come! I can't believe I've been doing this mom thing for 6 years!  We started Brynnes bday with muffins and hot chocolate.  Then Dane, Anndi, and I ate lunch with her at her school, she was sooo excited to show us around the lunch room and play with us at recess.  We also brought cupcakes to her class.  After school we headed to the airport to pick up Grandma.  Grandpa came too as a suprize, he put on a long wig as a disguise and Brynne and Dane thought it was the best thing ever! Then we headed to the mall for build a bear! She has been wanting to do build a bear for MONTHS but it is so expensive I have kept telling her maybe for her birthday we could.  So it was alot of fun, the store was not busy so she got alot of attention. She made a Elsa bear named Lily :)  Then on Saturday she had a arts and craft themed birthday party with some friends from our ward.  The kids all worked together to make a "creative" cake! The kids made paper bag puppets, played games, and went on a treasure hunt grandpa put together.  She is loving being 6!

 

I can't believe my sweet baby is 1! She has been such a fun baby, she has her brother and sister wrapped around her fingers.  They love to try to carry her around (which she hates), and love to be the first one to go in her room when she wakes up.  Anndi gets so excited when she see's them in the morning or after her naps, and starts kicking, bouncing, and babbling when she sees them,  it is adorable. She has the cutest toothless grin that melts our hearts every time!  She started walking when she was 11months old, and is basically running everywhere now, and LOVES to play with all the pots and pans.  She loves her daddy and its so fun to see her and Taylor's relationship, they have a special bond, I guess since they are both the third child :)  Anndi has also been a hard baby at times because she has been sick a lot. She has been to the dr. more that Brynne and Dane!  She has been on three antibiotics in the past month for ear infections and has an appointment with a ear nose throat doctor coming up to possibly get tubes in her ears.  She has had us worried for the past 8 months because she is so small.  She went from the 80 percentile to about the15th percentile. She has refused a bottle, and will only nurse even though I've had a hard time making enough milk.  She also has had a lot of reflux. She recently started taking a bottle now that we can give her whole milk, if we put a little chocolate syrup in it, and has finally started to gain a little weight, yay!  We have had some rough days and nights but we would not trade this precious girl for anything.  Her personality is starting to come out.  She loves to wriggle out of her high chair, the shopping cart, try to sneak up the stairs, and hide under the table and chairs.  She loves to eat her chocolate milk, rice, and loves meat and eggs.   She has never liked her baby food so we went right for table food smashed up.  She is a product of her generation and loves to play with my phone, the table, and the remote, and has a surprisingly strong grip and will steal them from anyone! She has recently started sleeping through the night, hopefully that trend continues. We had a Lorax themed bday party for her, she loved her cake!  We love you baby girl, cant wait to see what the next year brings for you! 

 

 

 

Danes first day of Pre-School

Dane started pre-school at the YMCA.  He has a couple of friends in his class and is doing great so far.  Dane doesnt always like to share a lot about his day or what happened somewhere, but so far he has been so excited to tell me all about school, its so fun for me to hear his excitement!  Dane recently came up with this statement that he tells me a few times a day, if hes going up stairs or to a friends house, or to preschool.  "Mom, I love you wherever I go." Melts my heart.  Love you Daner J!

Christmas in Iowa

Merry Christmas! We have had a fun Christmas break so far! Taylor and Brynne both got our of school on the 19th and dont go back until the 5th! We decided to stay in Iowa for Christmas due to being poor students :) We decided to use some of our Christmas money from our families to take a overnight trip to Chicago. We found a cheap hotel near Navy Pier, and were excited for a fun trip. Well this trip didnt go exactly as planned, it included alot of rain, subway instead of famous Chicago cuisine, a TON of trafic, and spending a fortune on parking. All and all we decided it would be o.k. if we never went back and it was a lesson in Murphy's law.We did however have a few fun moments in the Museum of science and industry and the planetarium, we will focus on those haha!

 On Christmas eve Taylor and I spent the day cooking a German Feast, and then having some friends over to eat it. We had so much fun at our Christmas Eve party! We finally got the kids to bed with their annual Christmas Medicine a.k.a melatonin. (After the fiasco of 2012 where Brynne was so excited she stayed up all night at made herself sick.) I love getting everything ready on Christmas eve, presents wrapped, etc. Everything is so exciting again to experience from our Children's eyes!

 The kids woke up at 6:45 a.m., not too bad! They were so excited about everything from the presents they asked for santa and they seemed to think everything else was Icing on the cake! Anndi loved being in the middle of the commotion and found lots of Chocolate laying on the floor, she was a happy camper and so cute to watch her first Christmas! Christmas was a nice day and we spent it watching new movies, riding new scooters, applying makeup, playing with all their new toys and kindle! To top it all off we went over to some friends house for a fantastic dinner. The best part of the day, no waiting in Trafic haha!

 We have been enjoying sleeping in and naps. Taylor and I have even gone on two dates which is unheard of lately! We have played a little raquetball and have been taking advantage of the Childwatch at the YMCA. We wish we could have seen family, but are grateful for the friends we have been able to spend it with in Iowa!