Milestones

We've had a lot going on this May!

Nathan had his last day of school this week! I can't believe how much he grew since his first day.

Last day of school May 2015

First day of school Sept. 2014

 He had a really great year. He loved his teachers and the friends in his class and always looked forward to Wednesdays. He's so excited about Pre-K next year.

The same night we also celebrated his year at AWANA. He worked hard and finished his first Cubbie book. I'm really thankful for a program like AWANA that is teaching him God's Word even as a three year old.

 He really enjoyed his year at Cubbies. He told me all about the stories and puppet shows and the games they played.

 
And he was so proud of his award.

 This past Saturday, Nathan played in his last soccer game of the season. It was while Matt and I were on vacation, and I was a little bummed to miss it. My mom took lots of pictures and videos.

 He had a great first soccer season and can't wait to play again next year. He had a hard time keeping up with the kids and the ball most of the time but during his last game, he stole the ball twice and took it down the field. He improved a lot as the season went on and always played with a smile on his face!

 And he loved his coach. She was really sweet with him.

 And of course, he was excited about his first soccer medal. I'm pretty sure he thought it was the best thing in the world that day!

Samuel had a big week too. He said goodbye to his pacifier. I had planned to take it away sometime early this summer, and my mom offered to do it for me, while we were out of town, and I took her up on it! We had dealt with it with Nathan, and I didn't expect to have huge problems, but did plan on a little less sleep for a few nights, so I let her and Barry deal with the sleep loss instead!

We had been talking it up about what a big boy Samuel is and that he can trade his pacifiers in for a new toy. Sometimes he was excited about it, and sometimes he said he just wanted to keep his pacis.

So Friday morning, Samuel put all his pacifiers in the mail box and waited for the mail man to come. Later he went out and found a stuffed Llama Llama in place of his pacifiers. He told me all about it on the phone :).

He also got a few other toys at Grammy's house. My mom said he did really good. They extended bedtime the first night and just let him play and watch shows until he wore himself out.

We got home on Tuesday, and I haven't heard him ask for a paci since. He goes to sleep at night and naptime fine. He has been waking up in the middle of the night more often. I think it might be because he doesn't have the immediate soothing of the pacifier, but he goes back to sleep after a few minutes just fine.

I can't believe how quickly my boys are growing up. These milestones are special but bittersweet at the same time.

Anniversary Vacation

To celebrate our ninth anniversary, Matt and I took a trip to the San Antonio area for a few days. We really try and make vacations (with kids and without kids) a priority, but it had been about three years since we had had a "big" (longer than a weekend) vacation with just the two of us and last year we didn't take any real vacation at all, so we were long overdue and super excited for five days to spend just with each other. We dropped the kiddos off with my parents on Thursday night, and even though we didn't leave town until Friday morning, it felt like our vacation started once we said goodbye to them.

We left early Friday morning and drove to San Antonio (actually, our hotel was in a suburb north of San Antonio). We checked in around 3:00 and rested for a bit. Then we got ready and headed to dinner and a movie. We ate at a delicious Mexican restaurant and then saw the new Avengers movie. It was a fun low key night.

Saturday morning, we headed to New Braunfels to go to Schlitterbahn. The waterpark was the biggest attraction for us in the San Antonio area and the reason we decided to vacation there. Our kids will be too young for the waterpark for several more years, so we thought it would be fun to go by ourselves now. And it was a great day! Saturday was the best day of our vacation for both of us.

The waterpark is huge with two separate parks that we had to take a bus to get to the other side. We had the best day. It wasn't very crowded at all and while the water was a bit cold, it didn't stop us from enjoying the fun. We got there as soon as it opened at 10:00 and shut it down at 7:00 that evening. I never dreamed we would spend all day there, but there was so much to do!

The Downhill Racer was our favorite ride of the day. I think we rode it six or seven times.

The biggest attraction at Schlitterbahn is this Master Blaster Water Coaster. It's voted the best water ride in America. It also had the longest line of the day (about 30 minutes)

Honestly, we weren't super impressed and both agreed that the Crush 'N Gusher at Disney World was more fun. I do think though that had we not had to wait in line for as long we probably would have enjoyed it more. We just got the "was that worth the wait?" feeling (especially when we didn't have to wait for more than five minutes for many other rides that day). And the Crush 'N Gusher was our first time to ride a water roller coaster, so maybe the novelty of it made it more fun. This ride didn't seem to have as big of drops as the Disney World ride. It's fun to say we did it though.

We also waited close to as long to ride the Wolfpack. It was a lot tamer of a ride, and we didn't think we'd need to ride it again.

We rode more slides, grabbed some lunch, reapplied sunscreen and were ready for more fun that afternoon. Our other favorite ride of the day was "The Falls." (It's the longest water ride in the world).  We thought it was just a lazy river ride, and when we realized it wasn't, it just added to the fun. It was really a combination of a rapids ride and a lazy river, and it was long. So we got a combination of relaxing and thrilling at the same time, and we both loved it. I think we rode it about six times too, and since it was so long we probably spent 60-90minutes of our day riding it. We never had to exit the ride either, so we could just stay in our tube and go around again and again.

They also had a fun lazy river/wave pool combination ride that was fun too, and tons of other slides and tube chutes and lazy rivers. We took a break late that afternoon and grabbed a funnel cake. Okay, it was a pretty elaborate funnel cake, but we had been playing hard all day!

We rode a fun dragon slide that had special effects (smoke/music/lights) that was different than most rides and then headed back over to the West park (after riding The Falls another time) and ended the day riding a few other rides we had missed earlier in the day. With ten minutes until the park closed, we ended the day with two more trips down the Downhill Racer. Schlitterbahn boasts about the best water park in the country, and Matt and I agreed that it is probably one of the best water parks we've visited.

We had a fantastic day acting like kids and spending time together. I think one of the best parts of the day, was not having any idea what time it was- and that it didn't matter. Normally, I'm so used to keeping an eye on the time as Mommy. Are the kids going to be getting hungry soon? How much time until we need to get ready for nap time? How long until the kids will start melting down? But on Saturday, none of that mattered. We ate when WE were hungry, rode the rides WE wanted to and didn't have to worry about anything else. It surprised me how freeing and out of the ordinary it felt to not think about the time.

We drove back to our hotel that evening, showered and grabbed some pizza. We were both pretty exhausted and slept really well Saturday night after our busy day!

Sunday morning, we woke up to heavy rain, so we decided to have a lazy morning. We ate breakfast and played a Catan card game. We actually played it four times throughout our vacation. It's the first two player game we've found that we both seem to really enjoy. It was fun to have time to relax and not worry about kids messing up all the cards :).

By 11:00 or so, the rain was starting to move out, so we got ready and drove to San Antonio to spend the day at the River Walk. We walked around the river and found a delicious Italian restaurant to eat lunch.

Then we took a boat cruise around the river. It was a nice ride and gave us some idea of where to go after the cruise.

We walked around more that afternoon and explored some shops around the river and at the River Center mall. We also stopped for ice cream. One of Matt's requirements for any vacation is ice cream and lots of it!

We also walked through the Alamo and explored it for a little while. We had both been as kids, but not in a long time.

We walked and browsed more shops and grabbed dinner at a Mexican place on the river before calling it a day and heading back to our hotel.

At dinner Sunday night we brainstormed some ideas for how to spend our last day of vacation, and we couldn't really come up with anything we were dying to do in San Antonio. We felt like we had seen everything at the River and no other attractions appealed to us, so we decided to get up early on Monday and drive to Arlington and go to Six Flags. It would break up the drive home, and it had been four years since we had been there or to any other big amusement park (without our kids).

We ended up having a good day at Six Flags but it was also full of annoyances. We had expected going on a weekday in May that we wouldn't really encounter many crowds, but we were wrong. There were hundreds of school buses full of teenagers that greeted us at the gate, and it took us over an hour just to get through the entrance, and after waiting in line for 45 minutes for one ride, we splurged and bought a fast pass to cut down on our wait. It just ended up being a really expensive day and we felt nickled and dimed all day with fees and extra costs everywhere we turned, but we did get to ride our favorite roller coasters and rides, and knowing that we won't really have the chance to head back anytime soon probably made the money and poor customer service worth it. But still, five years later, and Disney World has still ruined us on any other theme parks. We talked all day about how much better everything is at Disney World. We are both ready to go back as soon as our kids get a little older.

My all time favorite thrill ride is the Superman ride. I just LOVE it (that's one thing that Six Flags has over Disney I guess). We were able to ride it three times and our other favorite roller coasters (the Titan, Batman, and the Texas Giant) too.

While we were waiting for our fast pass to be ready for the next ride, we rode some smaller things too.

The park closed at 6:00, and we got in line for the Texas Giant at 5:50.It was a great ending to the day!

We checked into our hotel and then went to dinner. We were sweaty and dirty from our day at Six Flags, but we decided to go ahead and have a nice anniversary dinner at a steakhouse. It was a great dinner and great company.

We slept in a little Tuesday morning, and then headed home. We were both bummed to end our vacation, but were missing our Little Ones. We picked them up on Tuesday afternoon, and life is back to normal.

The kids had a great time with Grammy and Papa Joe and hardly missed us. They made it rough on my parents. Their vacation included fever, vomit, a wasp sting, tornadoes and saying goodbye to Samuel's paci. The crazy thing is my parents were smiling when we picked the kids up and offered to watch them again anytime. They are the best grandparents around!

Our vacation was over, but this view Tuesday night was still pretty spectacular.

We treasure our time to escape reality and spend some quality time only focused on each other, and this trip was a perfect chance to do that.

Nine Months Old!

Elisabeth Kae, you are nine months old!
You  got pretty sick right after you turned 8 months old with an extremely high fever. You were such a trooper through it all and were back to normal after a few days. I could tell you still weren't feeling great when I caught you sleeping in your high chair :)

The biggest accomplishment this month is that you are officially a crawler! You started hand/knee crawling on 4/16 and have been going everywhere ever since! Your poor brothers (especially Samuel) get frustrated with you often because you like to get into their toys and mess up whatever they are playing, but you are so happy to be mobile and to get where you want to go.

This video was taken on 4/16


And this one on 5/9. 

You've definitely picked up speed in the last few weeks!

You give me some difficulties with eating, Little Girl. You do great with your bottles (most of the time), but solids have been another story. You're not a fan of solids unless you can feed yourself. I don't know if you don't like to be spoon fed or if you don't like purees but it is a battle almost every meal time to spoon feed you. You bat the spoon away and usually end up making a huge mess. I'm doing as many finger foods as I can think of that you can eat, but I still feel like you're not getting enough nutrition (especially fruits and veggies). I usually try a jar or pouch of baby food at every meal. Sometimes you'll eat all of it, sometimes half and sometimes only a bite or two. For breakfast I also usually give you a piece of toast with jelly and pieces of banana. At lunch and dinner you usually get some combination of frozen vegetables, pieces of apple, cheese, chicken nuggets, pieces of grilled cheese sandwiches, etc. You're not a fan of grapes or blueberries (texture I think), which is frustrating because grapes are a staple in our house for your brothers' lunches and would be an easy finger food for you. I'm pretty sure your favorite food right now is cheese quesadilla. I gave you some and you gobbled it up so quickly! You really love any cheese. I'll put lots of different foods on your tray at lunch, and you always eat the cheese before you reach for anything else. I've been trying the baby food pouches recently to avoid a spoon, and you seem to do a little better with those.

Your typical feeding schedule is similar to last month (and I think will be your schedule for awhile)

7:00-7:30: 6oz bottle
7:30-8:00: breakfast
11:00-11:30am: 6oz bottle
11:30: Lunch
3:00: 60z bottle
5:30: Dinner
7:30- 6-8oz bottle and bed

You take two naps per day usually around 9:30am and 1:00pm and are ready for bed by 7:30 every night. Occasionally you still take a short evening nap, but you've mostly outgrown that. You usually sleep until around 7:00 each morning. Recently I've been hearing you earlier (closer to 6:00am), and you'll fuss for a bit and fall back asleep. You are sleeping really good at night! We had a few bad nights this month and I was worried you were regressing, but I guess it was just a growth spurt because you are back to sleeping all night.

You got your two top teeth this month (4/10 and 4/17), but you are still showing a lot of teething symptoms, so maybe more will be popping through soon.

You are saying "Mama" now too and I just melt when I hear you say it even though you're normally whining or crying when you say it. It's funny that you laugh and clap whenever you say "dada" and cry when you say "mama." It's a pretty good description of our roles with you though I guess.

You are still super clingy with me and have a hard time with strangers. I don't mind too much though. It's sweet how much you like me :).

You are wearing 6-9 month and 9month clothes, a size 3 diaper and size 3 shoe. You weigh 19lbs 3oz (50%) and are 27.25 inches long (50%)

You started clapping the day after you turned eight months old. Your big brother taught you. He was so excited that he taught you and you were so excited to learn. You clapped about everything for a week or so, and you still do it pretty regularly.  You've also perfected waving "bye bye."



You've also been pulling up on everything. Your daddy had to lower your crib because you've been pulling up so often. You still prefer standing to most other positions.

Your favorite toys are the play kitchen dishes and food, blocks (you like to knock down towers and then clap for yourself), your picnic basket, music table and our big red climb around car.

You're a pretty dramatic and demanding girl some of the time, and you always want to be the center of attention. You're squirmy and a mess for diaper changes, but you can bring the biggest smiles to anyone in our family with your sweet laugh and baby chatter, and we all adore you.

Four Years Old!

Nathan Wilson, you are FOUR, and the best four year old around. You are loved by so many people and such an asset to our family

You have the most tender heart and the most genuine apologies. You convict me to use a gentle tone and be patient even in my frustrations, because if I have a moment where I'm harsher with you than I intend, you immediately apologize with the sweetest voice (even when you've done nothing wrong). You certainly desire to please others and those qualities make it relatively easy to discipline you. A firm "no" is (usually) enough to prick your little heart and spur an apology and obedience.

You have a vivid imagination and love to put on a show. You set everything up on the stage including seats for your audience and then you sing and dance and tell stories. You're such an animated performer and always make sure that we are always watching and paying attention to you during the show.

You are such a kind and thoughtful boy, and I notice it most often with your brother and sister. You recognize their needs and seek to meet them. I hear you singing to your sister when she's upset and bringing Samuel books you know he loves.

You are organized and imaginative in your play. You like to set up scenes or plays with your toys, so you like your toys like your castle and fire station. You take a lot of time getting ready to play and getting everything set up just how you want it. I think you spend longer getting ready to play than actually playing sometimes. You like to dress up and pretend to do different things. You have a plan for what you're going to play and get upset if you get stopped in the middle of your plan. That's the biggest struggle with discipline we've had with you because you throw a fit if you can't finish playing and doing everything you thought about. I understand how you feel because you are so similar to me in that aspect of your personality that I hate when I have to interrupt your plans.

You are a rule follower and very concrete in your thinking- as in, there is a right way and a wrong way to do things. I've noticed your rule following tendencies in some funny ways. Occasionally, you'll have a Lunchable for a meal and it includes two cookies. When you eat it, you assume the cookies are for dessert and always eat everything else before eating the cookies (I've never told you, you had to wait to eat the cookies). Also, a few weeks ago we went to a park that has a little kid area and across a sidewalk/grassy area a bigger kid area. I saw you running to the other end of the park and you started to jolt across the grass (the most direct way), but stopped yourself, turned around and ran back to the sidewalk to get across. 

You are friendly and love to play with other children. Maybe it's because you're a big brother, but you seem especially good with/enjoy younger kids. You're happy to play with them at their level and to love on them. We went to an open play at a gym a couple of weeks ago, and for close to the entire time we were there, you played with a toddler and raced him around in his walker. It's so sweet to watch you love on Little Ones.

You are such an affectionate kid and I just soak up all the hugs and kisses. You reach for my hand whenever you're excited about something or feeling loved by me. We went to Muffins with Mom at your school this week, and as soon as we walked into the building you grabbed my hand and told me how much you loved me and were looking forward to spending the morning with me. I mean, seriously, you're the best kid around. I catch you holding hands with your friends (even on the soccer field), and your huge full body hugs are the greatest feeling. Your teachers at school comment often about your awesome hugs.

You are cheerful and always have a positive attitude and a smile on your face. That's one of my favorite things about you. I notice it especially during your soccer games. You're usually close to the back of the pack of players, but you are ALWAYS smiling and everyone can tell you're having a great time! You just have an optimistic attitude about everything and are always looking forward to and excited about something. Your cheerfulness is contagious and draws people to you.

You are helpful and always cheerfully obey when I ask you to clean up your room or other chores. Sometimes I'm actually astounded with how compliant and helpful you are and how diligent you work on completing the task. You make it so easy for your Daddy and I to parent you!

Your favorite foods are manicotti, quesadillas, grilled cheese sandwiches, apples, grapes, peanut butter toast, yogurt, ice cream, and apple juice.

You watch a lot of different TV shows right now, but your consistent favorite things right now are Paw Patrol and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. You enjoy playing with those toys and still like to play fire fighter and kitchen. Your interest in trains is starting to wane a bit, but I still catch you playing with them some. As you're getting older, you are more interested in craft projects that involve cutting, gluing and stickers.

You can write your name (if I've written it for your first so you can copy) and know almost all your letters, but you aren't very interested in practicing them. If I try and work with you, you say it's boring and you want to do something else. I'm hoping to find some creative ways to engage you this summer.

We start our bedtime routine (night, night show, brush teeth, read books, prayers) around 7:30 each night, but it's usually between 8:30 and 9:00 before you're asleep. We've limited you to coming downstairs with three questions before you have to stay in your bed at night. You wake up between 7:00-8:00 each morning and almost never take naps.

You love school and look forward to it every week. You enjoy music class, playing on the playground (or in the play room) and playing with your friends.  I can't believe we are gearing up for Pre-K in the Fall. I'm going to miss you so much during the day! You're the greatest little Buddy and Sidekick.

When I think about you at age four, the word I always come back to is delight. You are such a delight to me and everyone that is around you. I just enjoy being with you so much. I love our sweet conversations, your cute laugh, and your positive attitude. It is such a joy to spend my days with you.

I love you and your siblings equally, but you, my Precious First Born, will always hold a special place in my heart because it was you that made me a mother four years ago and introduced me to a love like I've never known before. As you grow that love evolves and grows too. I'm so proud to be your mommy and watch you grow up into such an awesome kid. You are a priceless gift and I thank God for you every day.