Merry Christmas

We've been so busy since Hayden started school! Getting adjusted, then we hit Thanksgiving (and activities) and now Christmas (and activities) and we're now on our official Christmas Break. He loves school and is having a great time! Here are a few pictures from school...

His Thanksgiving feast (I roasted the turkey legs.)

Here he is dressed up and ready for his Winter Program at school. His class sang 5 songs and he did a great job. He requested that I knit him a red vest for Christmas and it was finished the night before.

Lainey and her biggest cousin, Jackson, at the program before the singing started. Notice her beautiful "shiner". She managed to fall backwards off her car and give herself that about 1 1/2 weeks before this picture was taken. It's almost gone, but you can still see it in the picture below with Santa.Grandpa S graciously agreed to be Santa at the program (I'm the chair of the program committee.) Here he is with the family (I was in charge of taking pictures.)

I know I'm forgetting many things, but it's bed time for me!

Tardy Update

The biggest change recently is that H started preschool in mid-September. We've been working on getting into a routine and he really seems to love it. Here are a few pictures from his first day....
This is his class filing inside from the playground. If the weather is okay, we take them to and pick them up from the playground. It's a parent co-op, so I parent help about once a month. It's so much fun to really get to see them interact and meet the other kids. You can see Hubby and L over on the left side of the picture. Here are a few pictures of L. She loves to dance and keeps adding words to her repertoire (but Hubby and I are the only ones that can understand her.)

We had H's Trike-A-Thon fundraiser for his preschool last weekend and he placed 2nd in amount raised! They gave him a voucher for a new helmet and he also got a water bottle and a horn for his bike. He probably rode 50 laps! We're very proud of him! Here are a few pictures my friend, Pam, took for me!

I'll add a couple of updates soon on his first field trip (which is tomorrow.) I'll also try to update a bit more often!

Jenn

Still Busy...

This was an entry that I added pictures for, but never got around to updating.

Here's a pictures of little miss... Here's Hayden and Kate (he's not afraid of pink...)
We had an outing with Grandma and Grandpa Sonny to a local garden...

Lainey and her cousin, Jackson.

Busy, Busy, Busy

We've been busy lately... L has 8 teeth (top 4 incisors and two molars, bottom two middle incisors) and two more coming in! She's talking like crazy although not always recognizable. She's probably got quite a few words (mama, dada, bye-bye, ball, bird, balloon, cat, kitty, dog, meow, yes, shoe, juice... adding more everyday!) We had a couple of Carousel playdates that have been fun. H is excited about preschool in the fall! We've also gotten together with Dennie, Luke and Camille along with Emma, Ella and Alex for lunch. Here are a few pictures of the kids...

L having juice during a lunch date with our friends...L dressed up as a pirate using H's headscarf...

L and A... Her first boyfriend! They are so cute together and he's very sweet to her.

H with his firefly friends. He loves to catch them as often as we'll let him and they "sleep over" in his room to be released the next A.M. Doesn't he look like a big boy?

Hope all is well!

Jenn

Goodbye to Sophia

We've been picking up a friends daughter (Sophia) from preschool for the past two years. She and H play so well together. We love having her, but today was our last day with her! She's moving to North Carolina.


Yesterday we left L with Grandma and went swimming at the ARC for a while. They had a great time (I did too!) After lunch they suited up for an "adventure" in the backyard.Juice boxes and peanut butter crackers were packed in the backpack, hats were donned and off they go....

They played in the backyard for close to three hours. Swinging, digging for worms, pretending our dog was a "wild" animal (we have a basset hound -- very mean! ha ha) After a brief break inside they moved to the front yard.

Here's a picture of L (just so she doesn't feel left out!) She napped most of the time they were playing.

Next week we're hoping to get together with Sophia, her mom and her older brother and sister for a little early birthday party. We're going to make some cupcakes and I'm hoping to knit her a sweater this weekend.

Anyway, we will definitely miss her (and her family)!

Jenn

Pictures of the Sweeties

Where's David? Well, he stopped by our house in April! L wasn't too sure about him and I had to separate the two. Check out Missouri Theatre and their fundraiser. Sorry I haven't blogged lately... I promise a good long update soon. Until then, here are a few cute pictures of the kids...

L reading in her rocker after her bath.
H and L playing in puddles in the driveway.

Hubby, H and Cleo watching TV.

Jenn

What a Whirlwind!

Hubby left town Thursday afternoon to have dinner with a friend in St. Louis and then flew out for a nuclear medicine conference in Dallas on Friday a.m. He came home Sunday afternoon. We decided we needed to get out of town during his absence and went to St. Louis for the day on Saturday. We met our friend, Becky, at the zoo. It was cool and overcast, but we had a great (although short) time there. We went through the Children's Zoo and then ran through the penguin area before leaving.She then took us to Cicero's on the Loop for lunch. They have great pizza! After we dropped her back at her car (and L took a nap in the back seat) ...we went to see some other friends and met A for the first time! Tiff looks amazing and they all seem to be settling in quite well! She's so cute and very sweet! Leo is turning into a very big boy and seems to be a great big brother.After we left there we ran over to visit our friend Jessica! It's been ages since I've seen her. We didn't get to meet her boyfriend, but at least we got to catch up a bit with Jess!She took us over to Trader Joe's (no trip to STL is complete without hitting that shop!) We got lots of yummy things to bring back with us. It started to rain as we got there, but the rain turned into a torrential downpour as we were checking out! Luckily, we parked very close and there was a wonderful employee walking (uuumm, running) people out to their cars. I was able to pull up and load everyone without us getting too wet.

After we left Jess and headed home we ran into more rain (you couldn't even see the highway lines) along with hail. It didn't last too long. L doesn't like traveling too much, but we finally made it home around 10:30 that night. We had a great time, but we were all tired.

Hubby surprised us by getting an earlier flight home and we were all glad to see him! His trip was quick and fairly painless. His flights were a bit rough, but not delayed.

Jenn

My Littlest Sweetie Turns ONE

L is such a little sweetie! She had a great birthday... lots of fun and loved her cake!She's walking quite well now, but not running yet (thank goodness!). I can't believe she was born 1 year ago! My water broke a little after 10 p.m. Then the contractions started getting stronger and we went to the hospital at midnight. Things got very intense and after many position changes, etc. I did get a shot of Nubain to help take the edge of the constant contraction I was experiencing (the last 2 hours... 1 long contraction that never really gave me a break). Other than that, she was born naturally after about 2 pushes at 3:30 a.m. Hubby and Becky (Magic Fingers) were there to help me through. She was 9 pounds and 21 inches long. I felt much better after her birth than H's. I think skipping the epidural helped me greatly when it came to healing afterwards.

Happy Birthday to the Sweetie Pie!

Jenn

What a Day!

Well, we had our first day with Laurence, my cousin's 3 month old, yesterday. He'll be staying with us for April until his slot is open at his new daycare at the beginning of May. He's such a little cutie! After he and Janet went home we took the kids to the soccer fields at Cosmo Park to fly the kite Hayden got from Hope for his birthday. It was a very gusty, but mild day and we had a lot of fun. Lainey got to crawl in the grass and I got some good pictures of both kids. (More of Lainey than Hayden. He was so busy running around that I had a hard time getting anything that wasn't blurry.)

The last picture... Hayden walking around the front yard on his birthday with a milk crate "helmet".

Jenn

Aarrrrgh, What a Party!

We had a great 4th birthday party today! Here's the cake... Hayden loved it and we did manage to surprise him! Lainey even got into the "pirate" mood!It snowed on Saturday, but was mid-50's and sunny today! We got to have our treasure hunt in the backyard. I hid "gold" coins, rings and necklaces. The bigger kids even helped the younger and I think it went over well!Here are all the kids that joined us...

What a great day!

Jenn