Picture update

Kate 6 weeks old

Grace 5 years old

Jack 8 years old

Fall is here!

Fall is here and for us that means bonfires, smores, chili and hot apple cider. Jared has finished the stairs/dock project and the 18'x18' brick patio project so the past 2 weekends we have had 18-23 people over for a cookout/bonfire. It has been wonderful and so far no one has been poked in the eye by a smores stick! This weekend we are having 8-10 adults and 10-12 kids over for pumpkin carving and a cookout/bonfire. I will definetly be taking pictures!
Kate is now 6 weeks old and is smiling more and more. She tends to run out of smiles by evening and just stares at us like we are crazy (who told her!). She is trying very hard to roll from her back to her tummy and has made it to her side. When she was 3 weeks she rolled from her tummy to her back twice. So far it has been great taking her to the office with us. The patients love her and I always get a break from holding her :). So far she has been to the Joyce Meyer Womens Conference in St. Louis with 20,000 women saying "she's so cute" wherever we went, she also came with us to my 15 year class reunion (nothing like your 5 week old smelling like a bar) and attended my friends baby shower at the Melting Pot. We can't wait to meet her little baby in about 6 weeks (hopefully more like 4 weeks)! Kate is the best little traveler. The more noise the better and the more people to hold her the happier she is.
Grace is still loving school. She says no one wants to play with her at recess, but we have figured out that no one wants to play what Grace is playing so Grace won't play with them. She has always been a leader and not a follower...hopefully we are raising her to be a good leader :). Grace is still in ballet but won't show me anything she is learning...she says she forgets...Grace doesn't forget anything EVER. She keeps saying that she can't wait for it snow. I keep telling her that snow is a bad word that we shouldn't mention between the months of March and December....she just laughs at me :).
Jack is having fun fishing, bow hunting and bb gun hunting. His last football game is this Saturday at 9 a.m. It is supposed to be about 39 degrees here....BRRRRRR. So far his team has won more games than they have lost so he is happy about that. Last Saturday he caught the ball in the end zone for a touchdown. I unfortunetly was at the other end of the field so I didn't get a picture. He can't wait to go to Nana's for Thanksgiving so he can hunt with Jared. We will see how he really likes true hunting....being very quiet, walking for miles and not seeing a darn thing :)....sounds like fun to me.
Jared and I are trying to decide if we want to join the Princeton Club and start working out there. The drawback is of course the money every month but also the 2 year contract that we would have to sign. I think it would be good to have somewhere to go swimming this winter and they have open swim for families on Saturday's and Sunday's along with free childcare 7 days a week. Jack is all for it because he heard they have a Wii and other video games :). Grace really wants to learn to swim so she would vote Yes...we will have to see in the next couple days. It would be nice to workout with my peeps at a time other than 5 a.m. :). I just have to make sure we keep using it more than a month. As long as I have friends that expect me to be there, I will be there.
Well, that raps up our past week or so...I will get some new pictures up when Jared gets home with the camera.

The elusive SMILE

Well, it is 4:30 AM and Miss Kate has decided it was time to get up and start smiling. She just kept doing it so I grabbed the camera. Of course it took a little while for her to stop looking at the camera funny and actually smile again but I GOT IT! I caught a real smile. Now she is trying to go back to sleep...I think I will join her for a couple hours. I should be working out...are you up yet Nicole?

Sleeping Beauty.....

Yes, another update today! I know a shocker! I just couldn't resist showing off our sleeping beauty. She is already sleeping in 6-8 hour stretches at night so I am very thankful....tonight may be a different story since she has been taking a nap since 5:30 and it is now 8:04 pm! Do I wake the princess or let her sleep?

Is this a smile?

Poor Grace has gotten the flu both on Saturday and then today (Tuesday). Welcome to school Princess. I am hoping that it stops there and stays far away from Kate. I can't imagine a 5 week old with the flu..yuck! Other than the flu, she is LOVING school and has been given an "award" almost every other day. So far she has been the model student 2 or 3 times and then the "Best finger follower" in Reading :). Jack is enjoying 3rd grade and is working hard on his spelling words. Every week they are given between 50 and 70 words to study and then are tested on 20 of them. They aren't easy words either! Math still comes easy to him...thankfully he got that from Jared! Kate is becoming more and more alert and still won't smile at us. She looks like she might do it and then wrinkles her eyebrows and looks confused. I just got back from the Joyce Meyer womens conference in St Louis. My mom, cousin Heidi, Kate and I went. As always the conference was amazing and Kate did great!

Another crazy week!

Well, this week has been another crazy week.

Grace came home with a goldfish she won at Awana's and thanks to Nicole she also got a fishbowl and food. Goldie is doing well in her new home. Unfortunetly the brand new (way over priced) Ariel fish tank that she got for her birthday kills any fish that we put in it. The first fish, Bubbles- the puffer fish, lasted about 2 weeks. Then we thought it would be better to get a Beta fish. We brought "Beta" home last Sunday I think and found her floating at the bottom 4 days later. I really dislike fish. So tomorrow I have to put "Beta" in a plastic bag and find the reciept and take her back to Petsmart and get a new free fish. I don't know how many more dying fish Grace can handle. Thursday, Grace started ballet. It is only for 1/2 hour but she seemed to LOVE it. We did figure out when we got there that her feet have grown again and she needs new ballet shoes. Maybe we can get those when we return Beta. She also has decided to get her hair cut! 2 years ago at Thanksgiving she said she wouldn't get it cut until Kindergarten and she didn't. So now that Kindergarten has started off comes the hair. She looks so cute!

Jack is still busy hunting with Jared. They haven't seen anything yet but that could be due to Jared giving Jack the deer call and Jack playing it like a musical instrument. The deer know exactly where they are at!

Kate is growing too fast and is already looking different to me. She is soooo strong! Last night I put her on her tummy and she quickly got mad and rolled over so I put her back on her tummy and she promptly rolled onto her back again. I don't think a 3 week old baby is supposed to do that. Then I put her on her tummy and moved her arm so she couldn't roll over as fast and instead she got her feet and legs moving and scooted across the blanket. If she had any arm strength we would be in serious trouble! Well, she is starting to wake up and that only means one thing.....food better be coming soon!

Today is a BIG day!

Guess what happened on the way home from school! Grace lost her 1st tooth! It has been very wiggly now for quite a while and today when we picked her up she said "today my tooth will come out". About a block down the road she was holding it in her hand! So far we have lost and found it 3 times....she just won't leave it on the table. She isn't sure about putting it under her pillow because she isn't sure she wants to give it to the Tooth Fairy, even if it is for money! Here is a picture of our toothless princess!