November 2013

On November 6th, I had gastric sleeve surgery.  The surgery basically entails removing 75% of your stomach.  This made my November focus on walking every day, eating extremely slow portions at an extremely slow rate.  I had a couple of weeks off of work, but life just kept on moving and I had to fight some fatigue and pain.

Our little Grace turned 4 on November 10th and we had a party for her at our house.  She had such a great time with friends and family and opened some new favorite dolls!  I can't believe our beautiful Grace is already 4 years old!

Grace was VIP at school during a week in November.  Some of the perks include a bulletin board that talks about your favorite things, being the line leader, show and tell and bringing in your favorite book for story time.  

Claire continues to love school.  A note got sent home from the school nurse that said she didn't do so great on her eye exam and that we should go see an optometrist so that was on the list for December.  

We had our 3rd Annual "Friendsgiving" this year and it was a lot of fun.  We had a smaller crowd than years past, but we had a great time hanging out and getting excited for the upcoming holidays together.

With tradition, we decorated for Christmas the Friday before Thanksgiving.  I know it is early, but its a tradition we have started and I love it!  Unfortunately, it also means that by December 26th, I am ready for the Christmas stuff to be put away!

Here are some pictures from our month of November...

The following are pictures from Grace's birthday party: 

  Sophia the 1st cake!

Great Grandpa came and made Grace a Barbie bench and picnic table

Here I am 6 days out from surgery and (with the help of Miss Jessica) taking Grace to gymnastics

For Grace's birthday, Aunt Beth bought her a gymnastics class.  She was nervous during the class warm-up and dancing, but had a great time when they broke off into individual exercises.

Grace and Jake waiting for Claire to come off the bus

I can't say enough about Pete.  During November, I was absolutely worthless.  I didn't feel good.  I wasn't allowed to clean.  I couldn't do laundry.  Bending over to shower the kids hurt my stomach and back.  Pete picked up for my shortcomings TEN FOLD.  I am so lucky to have him as my better half!

The kids wanted to join me on one of my evening walks

This is an example of the portion difference.  Regular meal size tupperware on the left and then my 2oz tupperware containers on the right

Below are pictures from our family decorating for Christmas:

This year, it was Grace's turn to put the star on the tree and with a little help from dad, she did great!

Jake kept wanted to hang his ornaments on the very edge of each limb.  The ornaments would then promptly fall on the floor.  Pete or I would go back around and just re-hang them  :)

This is one of my favorite pictures of all three kids decorating the tree.

A nice Sunday brunch at Panera with these three cuties!

October 2013

So sorry that I am just now getting to updating the family blog.  We have found ourselves very busy, but loving every minute of our kids growing and learning...well, maybe not EVERY minute :)

It is hard to recall what all happened in October.  We did a few fun things with the kids that were based around Halloween/Autumn.  We took the kids to a pumpkin patch where each kid did a mini zipline, picked out pumpkins, fed animals and rode a little train around.  We also took the kids to the Zoo where they were able to trick or treat at different animal stations and see lots of animals.  After the zoo, we took the kids to a drive-in movie and had a lot of fun.  After about an hour, Jake got restless so we put him into a car seat so that he wasn't getting in the way of Claire and Grace watching the movie or spilling something.

Claire is loving kindergarten.  They have a behavioral "clip chart" in which you clip up if you are behaving nicely and clip down if you are not behaving well.  Claire is always so proud when she is either green, blue or pink.  The highest you can be is purple, but there have only been 2 students that have gotten that so far this year.  She REALLY wants to get to purple some day.  She is learning to read and does some basic math.  She enjoys art, library, and gym class.  She seems to have lots of friends in her class and talks about different kids in her class often.

Grace goes to preschool Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays and then stays home with me on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (usually).  On Wednesdays we have swim lessons and Tuesdays we usually go to the Y to play in the "Kid's Room" or the "Block Room".  She loves school as well.  Her class has a majority of girls so there are a lot of dolls, kitchen, and my little pony toys in her classroom.  She went for her 4 year old check up this month and seems to be doing great.  The doctor had a few concerns because while we were in the office, she didn't say a single word.  For those of you that don't know, Grace is a chatter box (especially when she gets comfortable), but until them - she will just look at you with her big brown eyes and put on the biggest poker face you have ever seen.  I assured the doctor that this is just her personality and she really socializes quite well!

Jake is a one man wrecking ball!  He is all boy and just runs around and either destroys toys and makes messes, or runs into a wall and bangs his head!  But, man does he melt my heart with his smile!  He is learning to talk more and more.  He has had some trouble with using words, but we have found that since switching day cares, he has started to use more and more words and we understand him so much better.  His big move this month was coming out of a crib into a twin bed.  He has done well with it for the most part.  For the first 6 weeks or so he would wake up sometime between 4-6 a.m. and take all of his blankets, stuffed animals, pillows, and sheets off of his bed and throw them outside his door.  We would wake up, help him but them back and tell him it was time to go back to sleep.  

Here are some pictures from our month of October...

 Claire and I waiting for the bus

 Grace and Jake in the Block Room

 The Clip Chart at school worked so well, I made one for our house!  The girls do really well with it!

 Movie night in mom & dad's bed

 Halloween 2013 (Claire - Mariposa the Fairy; Grace - Sophia the First; Jake - Superman)

Below are pictures from "Boo at the Zoo"

Below are pictures from the drive-in.  We had hot dogs for dinner and saw "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2"

Jake in his new bed

Grace and Jake waiting for their Flu Mist!

Claire got her ears pierced in January this year but one of her ears got infected so we had to take it out.  So towards the end of October Claire braved it again, as well as little sister Grace!  Here they are with freshly pierced ears!

Below are pictures from the pumpkin patch that we went to.  The kids had a great time!

One evening we went for a walk.  Claire started out riding her bike and Grace gave it a whirl by the end :)

One night we took the kids out to play in our hot tub.  They love jumping off the seats and splashing around.

Towards the end of October we went to Indianapolis to visit with my family.  We celebrated Grace's birthday and hung out with some of my most favorite people!  It was a great visit!

We left Indy early on Sunday so we could get back and Trick Or Treat in our neighborhood.  The weather was awesome and the kids did so well with their "please" and "thank you".

One morning, Claire asked me to curl her hair before school :)

 Sometimes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Grace, Jake and I curl up in my bed and take naps together!

I went to the kids Halloween party at their daycare where they marched around in a parade.