It may be cold outside, but our hot tubbing sweeties seem to think a bikini is the outfit of choice for any day. They took some time out on Sunday to put up the new Christmas tree (that mom got as an excuse not to have to get out the big one to decorate to look at for a whole 12 days before we leave for Christmas :) ). Enjoy the beauty of our fabulously decorated tree. The girls had a ball and are proud of doing it all by themselves. Pink and sparkly - Aunt Libby just has to love this! I admit - kind of scary, but they love it!
Enjoy some pics of the girls with Grammy Pat. They picked out a gingerbread house and did a great job getting it together. Grammy and Mommy found a new trick - trade the frosting for the glue gun - the walls stay up this way!
Milana and I went to the Booster Club Auction today, we are making it a yearly event. Upon our quick walk through, she found a bag with a certificate for a Grand Harbor birthday party. We had already talked about doing that as a birthday gift from mommy and daddy so she was all about it. She signed in and got her number "2" and we were off and running. The item came up second and she had her card up before they even announced what it was. She started at $50 and finally won out at $110. She was thrilled and met the guy half way to pick up the bag. A bunch of people later said she made their day, to see such excitement was worth being there. That was all we ended up purchasing this year, but it was a great deal - the party is usually worth $100 - $150 depending on the day of the week you go, and the bag included a fancy silver bag (that is now her beauty bag), a $10 certificate to Betty Jane candies, a sheet of princess stickers, and a couple Hello Kitty necklaces. Made out pretty well and am now done shopping for her birthday as well! Hope you enjoy the pics of her surveying her items and then winning the prize
Mila and Kiki and I made a quick stop at Pilgrim Heights on our way back home in October to see the bench that was made and dedicated to Grandma and Grandpa. It sits in a beautiful spot on the hill, at just about the point you get tired walking up. Thought others might enjoy being able to see the photos. Thanks to Dennis, he did a beautiful job and Grandma would love it.
Every trimester they have a celebration. This expedition was all about going to the market and the farm. They sang about apples and did a finger play about pumpkins, which we have on video too long to post. The principal even came in and did a read aloud with the kids and parents to show how to ask questions about the books that we read at home. Mi loves to read and is always in a book. She is also in an advanced reading group that is reading a book and making Sancocho -which is chicken stew. They are reading to their classes on Tuesday and sharing the stew. Last week they got to go to Hy-Vee to do the shopping. She loves it! Here are a couple pics of Mi and her friends.
Hey all, just a quick note to share. My guard kids competed at state solos this weekend and did a fabulous job! All seven earned division 1 ratings and the top two spots came home with us in Hillary and Leah! Yeah - thanks to Rachel and Kelly for all of their hard work with the kids, and the kids for not making it hard work for us at all!
Gotta love a parade - or at least deal with it. This is the one the girls like. Mi is Charlotte this year and has donned Kiki as Wilber the Pig from Charlotte's Web. Se got the costumes done and are already through wear number 3. Sunday morning we had costumes in church and then had the Halloween party after for lunch and games. Monday night was the parade, which both of the girls walked with me in. Not bad for a cold night. They decided walking was cooler than riding with daddy in the truck. He pulled the float for the Vocal Fusion - the Colts Youth Choir. Tonight they wore costumes for dance class and took treats. Wed and Thurs are clear, Friday night is trick or treating and a party at Karen's. Not bad for the investment!
Add one more birthday to list of past happenings. Kiki turned 4 on Thursday. I don't know if she felt like it was a great birthday or not. She took ice cream to day care and Lizzie's house while I was at practice. She got one present from her sister - a new Barbie from the Nutcracker doll. She was thrilled by that! She did get cake and presents at Grandma's house and got her ears pierced at Club Libby Lu. Seemed ok with all of it!
Now we are working hard on Halloween outfits - Charlotte and Wilbur the pig. I have some work ahead of me today!
I have been reading comments on my blog. Ahh, to speak such tales. I believe my sister has some issues she is going to need to resolve. She truly feels she stands a chance in forcing her beautiful child to stray away from pink and frill and all things covered in bling. I await the day when young Violet says, "Mom, I want to change my name to Fuschia or Pink" or some other pink related color name. She will want pretty earrings, she will want to wear boas, she will want to be fabulous so that she can be like her big girl cousins. And Kiki and Ella will do everything in their power to bring her to the bling. What is a mother to do. I do not know in her case. I can only say what a good aunt should do. Foster the child's new love for pink and provide for her all of the things she will need to truly embrace her new found love of the lighter color. To my sister, you will not win this game no matter how much you trash talk the store of your namesake. Do not forget you are only one - and I have back up - on both sides of the family.
Vi - we love you, just let us know when you are ready and we will immerse you in pink and bling.
What a weekend! Mi and Ki and Mommy traveled to Ankeny for a long weekend. 1st stop - Iowa City to see the surgeon who said don't have surgery. Check. 2nd stop - Grammy and Poppa's house. Check.
The two little girls were up until 11:30 - both being night owls helps their cause - slumber partying in the living room. After putting them back down about 5 times, grammy finally said "Who wants to sleep in the dining room?" Kiki quickly agreed and headed that way. Ella said, "I'll go to my bed. " and went downstairs. Finally quiet!
I got to drop off Haley to school - Terrace Elementary. Just happens to be where I attended kindergarten, the first year it was open. Odd how that happened. Then returned home to chase the little ones around for the day.
We picked up the big girls after school with Mi, Kiki and Ella in tow and headed to Des Moines. It was a girly girl adventure to Club Libby Lu. Named appropriatly for my dear sister, it is quite an adventure. Imagine a simple girls jewelry store, now make everything inside pink and purple and cover it with a layer of bling and sparkle. Put all of the daddy's outside on the bench and you pretty much have the idea. They were thrilled. To celebrate Kiki's birthday she got what she has been talking about all summer - her ears are now pierced. Perfectly - with shiny pink earrings, that happen to match Ella's new earrings as well. Shelby decided she could do a trip to the Club for her birthday too, so we headed there with all of them. Pick an outfit to be your dress for the day - two pink shiny dresses and three pink fairy dresses. Pick a Libby Du - three Hannah Montana and two Ashley Tisdale, complete with wigs for all. Pick an accessory - three headset microphones, two princess tiaras. Get your make up and nails done and then pack your backpack with pink and purple stuff - check times five. Learn a dance and perform in the entrance to Younkers - for whoever walks by. Check - for four - Milana bowed out of that part.
Then came the big finish - earrings for two. Kiki got up and was ready to go, click and done. Not a tear and big smiles when she looked in the mirror. Ella, after a quick distracting walk through the store (just in case Kiki cried), jumped right in the chair. Did well, click and done and tears. She told Jess it hurt her berry berry much. But, by the time we got home she was showing them off with Kiki. I was amazed that the nice lady was willing to let Kiki pick out the pair of earrings she wanted - priced from $16 to $48. I put a stop to that and showed her the cheap ones. She was fine, they came in pink.
We headed home for birthday dinner and a couple quick presents - not much left after you cover a good makeover! Kiki got a book from us and the earrings and a charm from Grammy and Poppa and was pleased. That was easy!
Ok - step one - we get into fall and life is crazy. Mi loves first grade - although she will say that she hates it. She just doesn't like to work - but she is learning and will tell you all about how cool music class was. She is reading and loves it! Even tackles chapter books - a far cry above the five word on a page books that come home as homework. Spelling is easy - even the bonus words - duh mom. Kiki is all about Karen's house. She and her buddies are learning lots of cool stuff. Karen tried out a new preschool curriculum. Ditched it, she already does more and cooler than what they called for. Kik is way into art and singing songs. She and Mi are both in dance class, but I think Kiki has the edge on wanting to be there. Kiki's big deal is wearing big girl underpants. Came back from vacation and she one day told me she did not wear pull ups anymore. And with that we were done. She had 3 accidents in week one and we moved on in life as a big girl.
Step 2 - the computer crashes and takes three weeks to be repaired. Thankfully the hard drive was okay and we got everything (all of the digital photos I have taken) off of it prior to having to do a hard reformat to get it running. Now back on track, but having to slowly reinstall everything to get back into it all full speed.
Step 3 - I went in to the doctor for a stomach pain. Figured it was a hernia. It was, but it was really displaced pain from gallstones. There are several - some of which are 1cm + in size. Kind of crazy. So I am learning all about gallbladders and what they do and am figuring I have been dealing with this for at least 2-3 years. Crazy explanation for potentially all sorts of stuff. Could by why milk tastes bad, the yellow dye issue, feeling nauseous... on and on. I go to Iowa City on Thursday next week to get more info. Odd how things happen.
Chase Walter Kreimeyer 5 lbs 12 oz 20 in long - amazing! 2:something (I am not quite sure I ever got an exact time!) Bluish bright baby eyes and more strawberry blond hair than the rest of them had!
General agreement by siblings and cousins (and an aunt or two) after tonight's first visit is that he is pretty cool. The girls all got to hold him and are naturals at it, he is just about the right size for little arms to get a handle on. He is a tiny little peanut, his body would fit in the wipes box and his head is tiny. Long arms and legs and the fingers on his right hand are really long. The big excitement today is the discovery of fingers on his left hand. The ultrasound led to believe that there was nothing. He has two - a thumb and we think pinky -although it is long like the rest of them. He has movement in the hand and Jess said grabbed her finger. He moves both arms all over the place with no shoulder issues that we can see. All of his test scores were great - way beyond where they figure for being little and two weeks early. Everything looks to be great! What a special blessing!
Jessica is doing great. After about 16 hours in labor she pushed about 3 times and Chase entered on his own. They did have to unwrap the cord from around his neck, but there do not seem to be any problems from it. She feels a whole lot better than she has the last little bit. Scott is tired, after a week in Colorado, he came here to Dubuque with the kids and had just returned home yesterday in time to work and turn around to drive right back. Kind of what we figured would happen. But he is happy and proud of his new baby boy.
Haley and I compared pics of Chase and Brennan and are amazed that Chase is almost Brennan's clone at this point. We have a couple of photos that you can't tell the difference between them. So - looks like one more point for the pasty blonds in their family!
Enjoy the photos - there will be more as we get them!
We are all on the patiently waiting list this morning for baby Chase to arrive. Jess went in last night, the kids came over, Scott came back and all is ready to go. Should be good news sometime this morning or early afternoon! Check back for more this evening! Hopefully we will have photos ready to go!
We had a great trip and shared all of our photos - here is the first round. These are all off of my camera. Only a small portion of what I took - but a good look at what we did. Here is a quick itinerary so that you can place photos in the week. It was a busy time. Took down time to relax and chat and feed baby Violet. The kids had a great time - all 9 little ones - Shelby - 9, Haley - 9, Elana - 8, Milana - 6, Emma - almost 5, Kiki and Ella - 3, Brennan - 1 and Violet - 5 weeks. Quite a handful!
Saturday - left Ankeny, went to Omaha Zoo, drove to Grand Island Sunday - drove to Fort Collins Monday - drove to YMCA of the Rockies at Estes Park Tuesday - hung out at the Y Camp, Campfire in the evening Wednesday - drove up to the top of the mountain Thursday - horseback riding, closing group activities (wait for the videos!) Friday - said our goodbyes and drove to Lincoln, Ne Saturday - drove home to Dubuque and then did the drum corps show!
Wow - the week has flown by! I can't believe we have done so much in so little time. We have loads of photos and will have to do a huge sort to start posting - great stuff! Here is a quick peek at the group!
Mi does an expedition presentation at the end of each trimester at school. These are from the third one - All About Trees. They studied trees, created art about trees, made hand made paper, and learned songs about trees. It was great!
At the end of the year, Prescott does a fun day. They break down everyone into multi-grade level groups and then send them through stations. I even got to participate. Some of the guard kids and I go down and paint faces. Milana told me it was the best that I got to come to fun day with her.
Not much for pix - Shelby rode the zipper with Scott - won't do it again. Milana and Ella rode everything they could ride. Kiki rode the carousel - with great apprehension. Bubby watched. Kiki did go to a craft area and is very proud of her sculpture.
We spent the morning sitting on the curb in the rain at the parade. Jess and Scott with Shelby, Ella and Brennan, Steff with Mi and Kiki and our friends Julie and David with Gabriel and Julian. Julie's mom Joyce joined us too - on her birthday, no less. What a way to celebrate. It was fun to see them, they are here from New York for Julie (and Libby's) class reunion. The kids all came home with bunches of candy and lots of stuff - I think we got 5 koozies, 2 bags, a frisbee, and two stuffed teddy bears. Enjoy the pics! Aunt Libby - the video clip is a special one for you! I think they are mis-named, but have at it!
