Photo Catch Up

These are not really in chronological order, but fun pics all the same!

The short hair is back!!

Driving Dozer (after trying to run me over the two legged friend has had his license revoked!)

Cousin sleepover 

Apple cider donuts at Tanners (Briggs was with us - somewhere!)

A little chilly weather does not stop him from escorting EB to the bus stop on his bike

Grant always gets a kiss and hug before Elizabeth gets on the bus...always.  It is so sweet.  Especially since typically 5 minutes before we walk out the door I am saying "she will gone in 5 minutes can you just get along for 5 more minutes!!"

Grant and the neighbor girl love to catch butterflies.  They worked very hard for this one!

Grant always let's her drive him around. 

Sometimes when the big kids are at school we take the younger boys out to lunch :)

The GET ALONG SHIRT.  When they are picking at each other I put them in one giant shirt and they immediately start smiling because it is such a funny idea to wear the same shirt! Thx Pinterest. 

At home nail art...I'm getting better  

They really do love each other (or they really love whatever is on the iPad)

Watching a movie in the car can be soooo exhausting!  

Special visitor reading a bedtime story of Johnny Tractor

Happy Birthday Aunt Sandy!

Pretending to ride his bike to school 

Homecoming parade

Waiting for candy 

We need more of these after school smiles

A Year Later...

In some ways it is hard to believe that a year has past since we lost Brandon's mom, in other ways it seems like yesterday.  This year it was a beautiful fall day.  The kind of day Robin would have spent sitting with us curled up with a blanket.  We spent the day with his family (Brandon's sister and kids were in town).  Brandon had built an outdoor fire (shocker right?!) and we just spent time together.  Amber and I have been trying to put a book together for the kids for a year now.  We have quotes/stories that family and friends shared with us at her visitation and we finally got them complied and added pictures.  Each of the grandkids will get a book all about Mimi with plenty of pictures to help keep all the memories alive.  We are so grateful for the contributions that people shared and it will be a lot of fun to get these books printed and shared with the kids.  There are so many precious memories.  We ended the day with a Fondue.  Brandon proved himself a true fondue guru, as I failed to produce our recipe he went off memory and made one of the best fondues ever.

I truly believe that our loved ones that have passed continue to share themselves with us in unique ways.  The past few weeks Elizabeth has developed some anxieties about school.  It has become a struggle to get her on the bus.  The other day as I was walking the teary eyed girl to the bus stop I spotted a squirrel and used it to distract her.  We joked about this crazy squirrel and we tried to think of words that rhymed with squirrel to give it a name (curl, pearl, Merle).  We watched this squirrel run to the neighbors and get a treat out of a bucket and we hooped and hollered when we saw it start to dart across the street as the bus was coming.  She got on the bus with the biggest smile that day.  As I was telling my mom she said "maybe it's name was Mimi."  And then I smiled, because Mimi would have done something crazy just like that squirrel to make Elizabeth smile.  It is hard not having Robin here with us but it's awesome to know she will always be looking over us.

Elizabeth's Activities

We have one busy kindergartner! She gets on the bus at 7:50 and arrives home by 3:50, except when I have to pick her up on gymnastics day, because that starts at 4.  She swims twice a week.  That was from 5:00-5:30 but she needed to move up to the next level to be challenged (coaches words, not mine: "she has talent!") so we now do swimming from 5:30-6:30.  This means three nights in a row of sitting for an hour watching big sister swim/tumble.  Grant is getting much better at packing his own activity bag!  She really wanted to be a Daisy too, but there is only so much time in a day and we still need a day to come home and just play outside and let her be a kid!

This is the first year for gymnastics.  She loves it.  I love that it is 1 minute from our house.  They do all of the apparatus.  She hasn't mastered the splits but I told her that will come in time as she gets more flexible and that maybe it was harder for her because she has more leg to split!  I could never do the splits either, so I know she will survive ;) I have been pleased with the program and she always looks forward to going.  Plus it is really good exercise and she is getting stronger.

Speaking of strength....I can't say enough good things about what swimming does for her stamina and strength.  I try each time to count how many times she swims the length of the pool and I lose count every time!  One time 45 minutes in, they started their butterfly stroke lap - holy cow I was tired just watching her.  By the end, her swimming looks tired, but she pops out of the pool and if you ask her if she is tired she always says "NO!"  Her freestyle has improved tremendously.  Her backstroke still looks really good for a 6 year old.  She has the right movements up front for the breast stroke but she doesn't move very far forward so I am guessing the legs might not be doing exactly what they are suppose to do, or maybe just aren't strong enough yet to really push her body forward.  In the last few weeks they have starting working on the wall flips.  She thinks that is really fun, but they get really close to the wall before they have to actually flip - it's a little scary to watch.  I don't think she will compete this year, but we may look into doing a summer swim team where she could compete.  They have just starting competing a little in practice and she seems to get the idea to turn up the speed when she is racing.  Otherwise,  she isn't horribly fast because I believe she is working on really perfecting the stroke movements (mother's opinion!).  We are really proud of her.

Tonight they worked pretty hard on entry dives.  After the first one I saw her climb onto the platform! She literally crawled up and looked like she was hanging on for dear life, but she did it more than once! She is pretty brave!

Swimming Video Links: (pink swim cap and suit, far end of pool)
low dive: http://youtu.be/np1eTKeNCi0
platform dive - http://youtu.be/sURKGen_oI8
(in all of the slow motion glory!)

This is Grant at swimming...

Puppies!

Since losing Jack this summer our house has just not been the same....way too quiet!  We all miss the warmth of having a dog always by our side.  Brandon and I agreed a few months ago that we would be getting another dog, but we were going to take our time.  I got into full research mode.  My cousin is a breeder and she was an excellent resource.  I spoke to our vet.  Lots of internet searches.  I spoke to several breeders on the phone.  I feel much more educated and actually learned quite a few things.  The one thing that was really confirmed over time was that our family really wants a dog.  Elizabeth says she wants to be a vet someday and because Grant has few original thoughts he wants to be a vet too!  So they are going to have a veterinary practice 20 some years from now.  I love that picture in my mind.  How can these kids not grow up with a dog?! I will share a few pictures of some very lovable dogs that we have met over that last few months.  I can also confirm that we have a plan in place but until we share the news with the kids we are going to keep it quiet.  We are thinking the news (not the puppy) might be a fun Christmas Day surprise, but honestly, I am not sure I can wait that long!!

 And for the life of me I have no idea why Grant rolls his eyes up when I take his picture!!  I even tell him not to!

Ok, we did not meet this dog, but it is too cute not too share.  Came across this breed in my research...Giant Snoodle:)

Elizabeth brought home a book from school where all the students wrote down their wishes...here is her wish:

The kids have some clue that we will be getting a dog, but they have no idea the circumstances. It's just a thought in their head so Shhh.....Remember we want to surprise the kids! I had to share these pictures and I'm bursting at the seams with puppy excitement myself :)

Pool Closed

Never would I have thought we would enjoy a pool as much as we did.  Toward the end of September we ended up replacing the pump and decided there weren't too many hot pool days ahead of us so we closed it up.  The kids still ask from time to time if we can go swimming!  We will look forward to more swimming next year.

One of our new favorite traditions is Friday Night Fire Night.  Sometimes we include the kids other times they go to bed and it's just me and Brandon.  One night we even had the patio umbrella up so we could enjoy the fire during a bit of a drizzle that turned into a down pour!  As the temperatures start to cool Brandon still likes to have an outdoor fire.  However, some nights it feels like I'm sitting on the fire to get warm so I have convinced him to make a few fires inside.  My husband loves a wood burning fire.  More than anything it is nice to just listen to the roar and crackles and tune out everything else and catch up on our week.  As a side note...roasted Peeps are very good :)

Gifts from Afar

B recently returned from an overseas trip.  In the time he was in Asia the following made the headlines: 30 Hikers Killed in Volcanic Eruption and Teargas Used in Hong Kong.  I had just received a message from him saying he had arrived at the hotel early so the concierge suggested a nearby mountain to hike.  A quick google maps search showed he was not near where the eruption happened - thank goodness! But as I was following up on that article I find the teargas one.  His layovers were in Hong Kong and were long enough to actually go spend time in the city and not just sit in the airport.  On the trip there it was the wee hours of the morning so he had stayed put but on the way back he had intended on doing some sight seeing.  Mama-san (that would be me!) informed him his sight seeing would have to be inside the airport as protests were going on in the city.  But enough on that, here are the pictures of the kids and their gift-o's!

Not sure where his smile is, he liked his gift!

He also brought back a whole bag of KitKats.  Brandon woke up at 5am and I hear wrappers rattling. To which I replied "What are you eating and would you please share?!" Needless to say I consumed it in a dark room.  I thought it tasted a little off, but it wasn't until I went to grab another the next day and unwrapped it in the daylight and to my surprise it was not a brown, milk chocolate color, but GREEN.  Yes he bought green tea KitKats.  The kids ate them for breakfast and thought they were great! He also brought the kids back solar powered bobble heads that the kids now keep on their night stand.  They are pretty cute.  Elizabeth's is a girl in traditional dress and Grant's is a sushi chef.  

Washington Strong, Clydesdale Strong

Anyone who knows us knows we love St.Louis.  The Cardinals, the city, the zoo, the brew tour, Grant's Farm.  The Clydesdales came to Washington for an entire week.  It was so much fun.  Their stables were setup a mile from our house and you could go up anytime you wanted.  One morning the neighbor and I sent the big kids to school and took our little ones for a walk and got quite the experience.  One of the handlers was exercising the horses in the field and we stood in awe in watched.  But then the handler actually brought them over so we could meet them and even pet them. Come to find out later one of the horses names was Jack and Jack loves kids and the handler said there was no way he wasn't bringing them over to meet us, because that is just the way Jack is.  It made us all smile, being we were missing our own beloved Jack.  Of course we had to keep this activity hush hush because it would have been very upsetting to Elizabeth who was in school.  There was a 5K run where they had a Clydesdale waiting at the after party, so we made sure Elizabeth got a picture after I did the run.  It was such a cool thing for our small town to be a part of and they are such amazing animals.

Oh and we got to meet the dog too!

She loves animals!

St.Jude Kids Color Run

The kids look forward to the St.Jude Kids run every year.  They like to be like Pops! This year was really fun because they did a color run.  None of us had experienced this before but they had a blast and it actually wasn't too messy. It was like crushed sidewalk chalk powder.  Good job kiddos!  "Kids Saving Kids"

Grandparent's Day CPS

We are so fortunate to have loving grandparent's that live in the tri-county area so what are the chances that they are ALL out of town on Elizabeth's first grandparent's day at school? Turns out, pretty good.  She was so bummed, but we assured her that she has plenty of people that love her and she could ask anyone and they would gladly be her guest for the morning.  Enter, the wonderful Aunt Sandy to save the day.  She got a little tour and they did some apple activities in the classroom and were then treated to a little concert.  Sandy said that she is very quiet and reserved in class.  I think they both enjoyed their time together.

Grant's Pre-school

Because of Grant's summer birthday and speech delay we have decided to send him to kindergarten late.  So even though he is 4, I enrolled him in the 3's class so he could do the 4's next year.  After a month of school I wasn't sure this was the best fit for him and after conferring with the director and teacher we decided to move him to the 4's class.  It is the same teacher, same classroom just three days instead of two and of course new classmates.  I didn't want to come right out and tell him that he was changing classes so I told him about an hour before he started his new class that there would be some new kids in his class.  He handled the transition just fine and when I picked him up he said "Mommy you were right there were a lot of new kids in my class!" So maybe he isn't as smart as what we thought :) Two weeks later he has put the pieces together.  At any rate, he seems to be happy and really enjoys playing with the neighbor girl when the two classes are combined for activities.  He is writing his first name well and is trying very hard to read with Elizabeth (not really, he just likes to be an annoying little brother and repeat everything she says!).  Tomorrow is our field trip to the pumpkin patch so I will get to meet the kids in his class....should be interesting!

Grant's Fall Soccer

How adorable is that smile!

In effort to get B home from work a little earlier I persuaded him to commit to coaching a 5 and under soccer team this fall.  Due to work travel we anticipated he would miss a few games so we (I) recruited our good buddy Matt to help out too!  Work ended up taking B out for two weeks and Matt out for one of the same weekends and I redefined the term "soccer mom."  Yes I actually coached one Saturday morning game.  I really shouldn't use the term coach...encourage would probably be more accurate.  "Good job! Stay with the ball! Good job! Good job!  Yay!"  (as I whispered under my breath to the opposing coach "is this a corner kick? oh goal kick, right!") Hey, I tried.  I might have also been the only coach to ever call a game early due to melt-downs, but I'm a mom and I call it like I see it and those kids were done!  The smile in his picture says it all.  Grant loved soccer and the big boys had a pretty good time too.  The last game was called off by the coaches (not the organization!) due to rain.  It was a soggy mess.  I loved watching him play but getting him dressed for a game was a major ordeal!  I could never get the socks adjusted just right and the shoes on the right way and the shin guards on the way he wanted.  At the beginning of the year they had soccer academies, big practices with all of the teams.  It was too much for him and I was on the field with him the whole time or he was crying.  We finally gave up on the academies and just let him do the games and he was fine, well better.  He still melted down a few times when he thought I was leaving, but he rebounded! I would tell him "Grant, do you see other mommies out her holding their son's hands to kick the ball?!"  It was kind of sweet, but c'mon you can do this!! And he did figure it out and had a lot of fun.  As you can tell by the picture it was a small team (3 played at a time) and they all got quality playing time!  He thought he won every game (score was never kept) and no matter who scored they were all excited.  Although I do not fully grasp the rules of soccer I throughly enjoyed watching (WATCHING, not coaching)!

I love this action shot

A lot of coaching going on here.  Mainly B would yell "GO TO THE BALL!"

Coach has his game face on, Grant has an itch :)