October 2016

October 2016 had me knee-deep in two classes and trying to manage a full time job, children and their activities, and the upkeeping of a house.  Claire was involved in soccer and was really enjoying playing goalie.  Sadly, during her single-elimination tournament game, the game ended in a tie and it went to a shoot-out.  Claire was goalie and this mama was a nervous wreck!  Unfortunately, we lost the game and Claire was pretty devastated.  Afterwards, a few families went out for lunch to try and cheer the girls up and they were over it in no time!

Here are some pictures from our month of October:

Saturday morning "Learn and Grow" at Lowe's

Grace and Jake at Claire's basketball game - a couple of her biggest fans :)

Jake's work from kindergarten - Sorry, Claire :(

Post tournament lunch

We went to a benefit for a local charity with our friends, Mike and Anne.

For Grace's birthday, we redid her room.  She picked the quilt and we improvised the rest :)

I surprised the girls by taking them up to Cleveland for the US Gymnastics "Final Five" tour.  They were ECSTATIC and it was a very fun show to watch!

A few days later, we took all of the kids to the circus.  It was a great time and it was a first circus experiment for the kids and Pete. 

Pumpkin carving and final product

One day, I was able to go to the younger kid's school and help with pumpkin activities and spend time with Grace and Jake.  It was wonderful.

Jake worked hard for 3 weeks to have good behavior.  Once he had good behavior with no "yellow" or "orange" with the behavior clip chart - he was able to have this Pokemon toy.

Family Game night!

Halloween 2016:

Jake: Red Power Ranger, Claire: Colt's Cheerleader, Grace: Cinderella

September 2016

September 2016 proved to be a first for Laura - very minimal picture taking.  Typically, I have to weed through the photos and I still end up putting 30-40 photos on the blog.  Unfortunately this month I had to scrape for photos.  To say September was busy is an understatement.  However, it was busy for me and I highly doubt there would be any entertainment with photos of me at work or in our home office with me writing papers. :)

Pete coached Claire's soccer team this month while the younger two simply tagged along.  They did a great job entertaining themselves at games and practices and we look forward to getting them into more activities in the future.

We struggled this month with our sweet little Claire.  She had some difficulty with honesty.  I will spare you the details but she had to be punished substantially a couple of times.  We definitely think she learned her lesson.  It was a parenting first for us.  We know she has got a heart of gold, but it is extremely challenging to figure out the best way to teach your child right/wrong, actions/consequences, good and bad conscience, etc.  She showed a lot of remorse and told me she prayed to God that she could have a clean slate.  

Grace's month of September was filled with losing teeth.  She lost four teeth this month and had to be bribed every time.  I pulled three in one night and she got an ice cream sandwich.  She then had an awful looking snaggle tooth and she wouldn't let me anywhere near it.  What finally did the trick?   A shiny new pair of high heels and that tooth came right out!

Jake seems to be doing well in kindergarten.  We are blessed that he has the same teacher as Claire and Grace.  It is nice to have a rapport with her and she does a great job keeping communication open.  His speech is coming along well, but his listening skills are still our toughest challenge.

Here are some pictures from our month of September:

Hot tub/campfire night

At a gender reveal, the family sprayed silly string to find out that we are expecting a nephew in February

Grace and her new heels

We purchased a new minivan - it was a quick search since our old one was nearly $3K in damage repair.

Grace the night we pulled 3 teeth

I started this month in Nashville at a Neonatal Nursing conference.  It was a great experience and I got to stay at the Grand Opryland Hotel

The kids got stuck in the rain at one of Claire's soccer practices - they were in good spirits about it though

August 2016

August 2016 can be summed up in one word: Milestone

Some of these milestones include:

We had tickets to the HOF Game and it was cancelled for the first time in history.

Pete and I celebrated 10 years a wedded bliss with a vow renewal in our backyard.

We sent our youngest child off to kindergarten.

Claire decided on her future career as a cashier at Kohls (see picture below).

August started with Pete dropping the kids off at my mom's while he went back to Purdue to have a Guy's Weekend with a lot of his old college friends.  He had a great time and I was able to be very productive with an empty house.  When they got back, we headed to a restaurant with our good friends Matt and Erin only to see on television that the HOF game (where we were heading) was cancelled due to field conditions.  We were disappointed but like all good friends - we were able to have a fun night going to the movies and grabbing a few drinks.

Jake and Bently (cousin) - best of friends with matching soccer shirts!

It's hard to see but we caught a rainbow one evening and tried to get in a picture with it

Claire's first day of third grade - 

When she grows up, she wants to be an "artist and a cashier at Kohls"

Grace's first day of FIRST grade

When she grows up she wants to be "a teacher and a nurse"

Claire is LOVING soccer

Below are pictures from Pete and I's vow renewal.  We were extremely blessed with everyone that was able to come and celebrate with us.  We had a wonderful night.

Jake's first day of kindergarten

When he grows up he wants to be a "firefighter, police officer, and engineer"

Pete and I spent a long weekend in Punta Cana - we had a wonderful and relaxing time

July 2016

July 2016 started out with our dear friends, The White Family, coming to visit with their 4 kiddos.  For as little as the kids see each other, they are always able to pick right back up and get along really well.  Below are some pictures from their visit:

We met up with Bently and Lily to watch a movie at the drive-in - but all 5 kids were asleep before the movie ended.  It was still lots of fun!

Below is watching the fireworks display in North Canton

We spent many hot summer days in the pool in our backyard or at the local public pool

Jake and Grace were on the same baseball team and it was very fun to watch them play

We went down to Athens, OH to celebrate Kathy's 30th birthday.  The next day, we went to a place similar to Chuck E. Cheese and celebrated more family birthdays.  It is always fun to have a weekend with the Vandervaart family.

Our month of July ended with our annual "Beach MO" vacation.  This vacation is filled with swimming, euchre, playing in sand, and lots of laughing.

The first day was a little cold, so we rented an 11-person bike and it was definitely memorable!  Needless to say, we got several looks :)