Summer 2017

Oooooh I suppose we should update 😂  What a fun summer!  We've enjoyed great family time in the sunshine!  Far too many pictures to post so I made a slideshow ;)

Katelyn:  ALL about the monkey bars!  She finds such great accomplishment when she succeeds! Katelyn is very into her nickname of "Kate" right now and writes that on all her papers.  She heads to kinder-ready this year (5 day preschool 2.5 hours each day) where she'll start to learn to read sight words!  Although she's got a bit of a head's up from all our books and a little SuperWhy along the way ;)
Lucas:  Map puzzle.  We have a puzzle of the United States with all the pieces in the shapes of the states and this kid is a puzzle king!  He knows the states shapes and where they go in the US and is learning some of their names!  Lucas knows his letters and the sounds most of them make.  He's excited for preschool this fall!
Abby-girl:  Her vocabulary is about to pop!  She's starting to say words instead of sounds.  Her "bye" is no longer "da" but "Buheeee" Here are some of her words: Bye. mama. dada. Ma? (with eyebrows raised and head forward) (Milk), "Ameoma mama.  Mama?" (I'm going to go tell mama.  Mama?), Dipdoo (swimsuit), nomnom (food), "et ih go" (let it go), "nigh nigh", "and" (hand), "bypuh" (diaper which usually means to needs a new one)

Tyler:  Has been able to preach on a Sunday morning several times.  This man is definitely called because everytime he speaks, I and several others are moved and hear God's voice speaking to us through him.  Tyler had several great ideas including heading to Omaha for a family trip to the zoo (and a hotel of course!), Prairie Village to ride the train and see the "olden days", and lots of family outtings around town that have been a blast! Tyler also has been accepted into the Cadre program, which is Jeannie Mayo's program for selected youth pastors so he'll be busy this winter (when are we never busy) participating in that, continuing to go strong with our youth ministry, heading up Life Groups in our church, along with all the other amazing Pastor and Daddy things he does on a day to day basis.

Natalie: Back to school soon and back to part-time (I love my life!).  I'm excited to meet our new students and start the school year with rejuvenated vigor for being the hands and feet of Jesus and help improve kiddos' confidence and skills in math along the way!  I've been selling interactive children's books through Usborne for a year now and will continue as it is a HUGE help to our family financially (and all the new books and learning activities around our house is certainly a huge bonus!).    And on top of it all, I enjoy meeting people from around the nation.  Hearing their stories.  Getting to know their kiddos' needs and helping fill them by getting the right books in their hands!  Just a plug... if you or anyone you know want to score some free interactive children's books for your family, shoot me a message and I'll get you covered!  (Sorry- had to!)

This summer has been the best summer of all!  With mommy not being pregnant and not having a newborn glued to me and all the children are mobile, I've been able to play with them and truly enjoy our time together more than ever before.  Here's a slideshow of just some of the fun!

February 2017

I think we'll just post when we can.  Life is crazy.  Wonderful crazy.  Stressful crazy.  Exhausting crazy. But so good crazy :)

Abby-girl
-I should just give up calling her Abigail because even as I try to say her name, Abby-girl is what comes out since that's what we call her most often.
-Toddler-hood- She has found her voice and personality!  She is snuggly (tired or not), goofy, loves to giggle with her siblings by running in circles, and has found a way to voice what she wants.
-Words: The only words she uses consistantly are "hi", "dada", "mama" and ba-"nana".  When you ask her to say something and repeat it, she often just shakes her head.  Not in the mood I guess!  Which is funny because Luke used to repeat everything and anything we asked him to.  But Abby is really good at communicating what she wants anyway through pointing or reaching for what she wants or can answer yes or no questions by nodding or shaking her head.
-Still in a crib.  No other baby coming to rush her out of the crib.  Plus, she shares a room with Katelyn so the door needs to be open.  Right now when she wakes in the morning, she slowly wakes up Katelyn talking and then they talk and sometimes Kate brings her toys to her crib and they play until 7:20 when Kate's clock turns 7 (hehe) and Kate comes and gets mommy.  I don't sleep that whole time as I can still hear them in the monitor but it gives me some "me" time to wake up slowly and not jump out of bed to screaming and crying which is quite nice ;)
-Bedtime:  When the girls go to bed, they talk and giggle from their beds usually for about 20 minutes until they settle in and sleep.  Hearing them talk and imitate each others' noises and erupt in giggles, my heart swells with joy.  I had always wanted that in a sister and I love that they have this special bond already!  Abby sleeps better with Kate in the room.
-Chicken dance- did I post about this yet?  This girl hears the first cord of the chicken dance and she assumes position.  Since I play music from my phone I can't actually record it but see the video below. She had no coaching behind the camera at all.

Katelyn
-Sleep: Boy oh boy does this girl need good sleep.  As much as Abby loves having Kate in her room, sometimes Abby starts waking up very early (5:30 or 6) and when she starts talking and it's going to be a long day, I'll go grab Abby out of bed hopefully before she wakes Katelyn so Katelyn isn't overtired (read: cranky) all day.  Those are my coffee mornings.  But hey, at least mama gets to stay in bed ALL NIGHT most nights these days!
-Preschool- this girl can write her name, can sing the alphabet, count to 30 or higher, recognizes most letters and the sounds of A-D, and recognizes 1-10.  Honestly, she probably can do more than this without me realizing it.  She constantly amazes me by the things she says.  The other day, she made a comment about how if Jesus hadn't died on the cross for us that we'd have to die on a cross instead.  After a discussion about it, I asked her who told her that and she said I had.  She started talking about a conversation we had had probably 2 months ago about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins.  I never actually said that if he hadn't died for us that we would have to bear the punishment for our sins.  Her brain continually amazes me at what she understands and pieces together.  Her understanding is already so deep just because she LOVES to learn more about God.

Lucas
-Still our joyful light of sunshine boy.  He's becoming sensitive if someone hurts his feelings.   He loves to move and dance and if you start playing "I like to move it move it" and the drums start going, his little bum starts to wiggle and it's awesome!
-Puzzles: He is REALLY good at puzzles now!  Goodness knows we have SO many puzzles to practice on (I just sold 2/3 of the puzzles and I still have a huge drawer chock-full of other puzzles!)
-Forcused- I'm realizing that this kiddo is almost hyper-focused.  It's hard for him to hear you if he's already doing something else.  The other day, we baked cookie-cutter cookies and he stuck with me through every step, beginning to end!  Kate came and went as she was interested which is what I expected from both, but Luke was 100% in!  And he's good!  His spreading of icing was amazing!  He caught on quickly and really does a great job!

14 months December 2016

I think I accidentally always skip November... it's a busy month! Here's where the family is at these days:

Abigail
-Walking!  Just this past week she finally started gaining enough confidence to not sit down after 2 steps.  It started with 2 steps, pause, 2 steps, pause... and is now full blast walking with a little crawling to get there faster here and there.  She LOVES being up standing/walking while her brother and sister run near her.
-Sleeping!! We finally "sleep trained" which I think was more like just changing our expectations more than any crying it out at all.  She now has a sippy of water in her crib.  She likes to drink something right before she sleeps.  I think she's like Lucas and is always thirsty and loves her water!  I don't think I even gave Kate water at this age because all she drank was milk.
-Communication- She has gotten a lot better in pointing and "talking" to show us what she wants.  You can almost always bet it's food or water or milk so if you try your way through those, your bound to find it.  Or if you've taken her spoon away, she'll give you the biggest fit I've ever seen any of the kids throw.  Lesson learned... let her have the spoon even if she's finished eating until she wants down to play.  That is one battle that is simply not worth it ;)
-Signs- she learned the sign for "please" this week and is getting better at using it.  I'm working on "hungry" just to widdle down the "is this what you want?" list.
-snuggle bunny- she is still my snuggler.  Loves to just lay down on you and snuggle in.  That is something I'll miss as she gets older.
-Lap Time- I've noticed that there are times when she just absolutely needs some lap time.  She'll be extremely fussy and act tired until you give that lap time to her.  Reading books or just being close to me is all she needs for probably 15-20 minutes and she's off to play again.  Perhaps her love language is touch, like Lucas?

Katelyn
-In preschool and busy making friends!  She has a few that she talks about all the time and has her first friend invitation event happening on Sunday (or rather that it's not a playdate where it's really for the mamas to hang out and the kids happen to get alone.  This one, Kate is invited over and we'll be dropping her off :o  Ah!  This is new!)
-Working on letter sounds and always is asking "what letter does _____ start with?"
-Starting to write names and learning to write letters.  Just this week she came home with a "trace the line" ws and I immediately recognized that she had written names above each line.  But they were all written backwards.  Like, letters all facing the left and written from right to left with the letters, too.  I was floored that she had written not only her own name, but Lucas (missing the a), and even mommy.  There was one word that I couldn't figure out and when I asked her what that one was (letter weren't even real letters) she said it was Abigail.  She is loving preschool and has Miss Georgia now since her teacher went on bedrest.

Lucas
-Sleep- This kiddo is the energizer bunny.

Parenting-
The biggest theme of this month has been learning that if you try to rush toddlers, you will ALWAYS accomplish the same thing- get kids very cranky and not accomplish anything.  In talking with a mentor who recently told me to let go of all the expectations on timing that I have for myself and just get things done as it works out and life has totally taken a change!  I am no longer stressed about being late.  It is what it is and we just keep chugging and I have much happier children because of it!  I always try to get moving earlier but some days even 30 minutes is not enough time to get all 3 pottied/diapered, coats, shoes, hats, gloves, strapped into the car, and on our way.  I've also found little humorous ways to deal with the typical whining.  We still have oh so much to learn but I'm learning patience.  I used to think patience was something you have or you don't and I'm realizing lately that it CAN be learned!