tiny dancer

Quinn started her first DANCE CLASS tonight! We have been looking forward to dance for a really long time. Her class is called Creative Movement, and it is all three year old girls. They are required to wear pink leotards, tights, and shoes to each class, which makes them look like such little ballerinas. Also, parents aren't allowed in the classroom at all! I was worried how Quinn would do, but she emerged from the studio with a huge smile on her face and had lots of great stories to tell. Here are a few pics I snapped as we were rushing out the door. :-)

First day of school 2013

My kids went back to school today! With my new position I have been working on and off all summer, but these last few days before school starts are really crazy for me. It worked out great to have them go back early.

Quinn is still in the three-year-old preschool room. This is the same room she was in for most of last year. She is really good friends with some of the little girls, so she was excited to go back and see them!

Wes transitioned to the two-year-old room since he will be 2 at the end of September. He cried a lot when we dropped him off this morning, but the teachers said he recovered well and had a good day.

Here's to another great school year!!

backpack on, shoes tied tight...

too sunny!

It is a good day....

....for lunch on the porch. :-)

blastball!

Quinn recently completed her first season of blastball! Blastball is like t-ball, except the kids only run to first base instead of all the way around. She did great!  I didn't get any pictures of her at bat, because I was wrangling Wes while Randy was on the field.

A few pictures of summer so far...

playing at the mall on our mini-vacation to Coralville

cheeseball!!

Cousin Abby turned 3!

Jumpoline!

We recently put on the trampoline attachment for our swingset. It has been a huge hit! Quinn loves it, and it is really the perfect size for the kids. I am so blessed to have a huge, fenced-in backyard that my kids can play safely in. Let's hope for lots more warm, dry days!

soccer!

We recently finished up Quinn's first season of soccer. This was her first organized sport, and she did great! We decided to go with Happy Feet Soccer. Each week they worked on drills with the kids and then had them scrimmage another team. Quinn loved the drills and skills games, but it took some time for her to warm up to the idea of actually going after the ball. She scored two points in her last game, though! We had a lot of cold and windy mornings, but Quinn definitely learned a lot. We are now in t-ball season...update to come!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Sweet Smiles

Spring?

The weather finally gave us a break today. We got to do one of our favorite things...play outside!! We had some errands to run this morning and hit up a school playground, then after naps went on a walk around our neighborhood and played with bikes in the driveway. After weeks of being cooped up because of rain, cold, and wind, it felt like heaven to be outside in the fresh air. We definitely have spring fever around here!!

Wes: 18 months!

I really can't believe that my sweet little guy is 18 months old. What is really crazy to me is that Quinn was 18 months old when Wes was born! Wes seems like so much more of a baby to me than she was at that age. Our sweet boy is really coming into his personality, and is at SUCH a fun age. He definitely has his share of temper tantrums and screaming sessions, but for the most part he is a sweet, kind, on-the-move pumpkin!

At 18 months old you...

*run all over the place!!
*take awesome naps.*sleep from 7 p.m. - 6 a.m. during the week. You sleep in on the weekends, which is really nice.
*love, love, love to read. We read the same few Elmo books over and over. You also love tractors, cars, basketball, and soccer.
*are an awesome eater. Your favorites are any fruit and eggs. You also love peanut butter, corn, peas, green beans, any bread, squash, hamburgers, quesadillas....ok, so basically everything. :-)
*are starting to talk a lot. We hear tons of mama, dada, ball, cup, Elmo, all gone, no, eat, milk, more, night-night, tractor, puppy, banana, baa-baa (sheep), book, Big Bird, got it, and lots more.
*love to snuggle, but love to be on the move, too. Church is really challenging right now, because you just want to go, go, go!

Well, buddy, we made it to a year and a half. I am looking forward to a fun summer with you as you continue to become a BIG BOY! Love you, monkey!

THREE!

I cannot believe my sweetest girl is three years old. That just sounds so...old to me! The past three years of life as a momma have been the absolute best years of my life.

Quinn,

Happy birthday, Angel! You surprise me and bring joy to my life every day. You are my special girl, my first born, the baby I prayed for so hard to come into my life. You came at just the right time! You are a rockstar at preschool, and know so much more than I ever knew could fit into one little mind. The other day you were weaving snippets of The Pledge of Allegiance into songs about days of the week and months of the year (which you know all of). Crazy. You are such a good eater! You love breakfast foods, and also fruit, veggies, pizza, grilled cheese, chicken, yogurt...the list goes on and on. You are getting to be such a girly girl. Barbie, babies, princesses, and Strawberry Shortcake are pretty hot stuff around here. You are a fireball of energy, yet you still snuggle Momma and are shy at times. I don't mind that; I think it is sweet that you can be quiet and shy. I get so many compliments on how sweet and gentle you are, and that absolutely melts my heart. You are exactly how I pictured my first little girl, yet you surprise me and keep me guessing every day. I love you so much, and I can't wait to see what the next year of your life brings for us. I am looking forward to a fun spring and summer of lots of trips to the library, the pool, and tons of walks. Happy birthday, baby!!

Pictures!

I know I have been totally slacking on posting lately...sorry! I wanted to share a link to our kids' recent photo shoot. These are the milestone pictures for Quinn at 3 years old and Wesley at 18 months.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.795551716161.1073741827.34001174&type=1&l=e5315ce043

Love our little sweeties!!

Dr. Seuss Day!

The other day, my sweeties dressed in their finest stripes to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday! Quinn was so excited, and came home with lots of stories of the books she read and the activities she did. I think her favorite part was eating green eggs and ham. :-)

Update on Wes!

The other day we had Wes's 15-month appointment, even though he just turned 16 months. :-)

handsome man in his Valentine's day picture :-)

At 16 months, Wes is...

*WALKING! I would be lying if I said I wasn't starting to get a little nervous when he wasn't walking at 15 months old. However, almost immediately after his surgery, he just took right off! He is doing SO well, and loves to just walk all over the place. You would never know he was a late bloomer!
*still a really good eater. He prefers eggs and fruit over anything else, but we really try to get meat and veggies in him as much as we can. We are still working on eating with a spoon and fork. Last night's pumpkin and yogurt were definitely eaten with his hands in lieu of utensils. Messy boy!
*starting to say some new words. He says "all gone" all. the. time., "all done," "book," "ball," "milk," "cup," "baby (doll)," "mama," "dada," "bye-bye," "hot dog," "apple," "'Mo (Elmo)" and a few more.
*playing with cars, toy food, shooting hoops, pushing around strollers/push toys.
*weighing in at 25 lbs, 15 oz. (85th percentile)
*33" tall (90th percentile) and has a head circumference of 18 3/4" (65th percentile)
*a wild man with a big personality. He definitely lets us know when he is tired, hungry, or MAD! He is also a sweetie who loves to snuggle and read lots of books.

We love you, Wes!! You certainly keep us on our toes, and there is never a dull moment with you around!

Surgery!

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted! Things are as crazy as ever around here. The biggest news of all is that Wesley's tubes surgery went great! I hope that this makes a huge difference in his life (and all of ours, too) and that he will be happier and healthier.

Thursday morning we had to be downtown to Methodist by 5:30 a.m. My dad stayed with us this past week to help while Randy had some late nights and to take care of Quinn while we got Wes to the hospital. We got checked in and had to wait about 2 hours for him to have the surgery. He was not as crabby as I thought he would be. We were not allowed to give him anything to eat or drink beforehand.

snuggling with his John Deere bear :-)

being silly!!

The surgery itself takes literally minutes. Randy and I had enough time to go to the waiting room, get coffee/pop, sit down and take a drink, and then it was time to go to post-op to get set up and wait for Wes! They wanted us there when he was coming out of anesthesia so that we could snuggle him right away. They gave me a warm blanket and a sippy cup of juice and brought our little man in to us. He was so calm! When Quinn had this surgery, she was a howling mess afterwards. Both Randy and I got lots of good snuggles. Once the nurse determined that Wes's vitals were ok, we got to check out and go home. We were home before 9:00!

done!! 

So far, so good. Wes gets drops in his ears twice a day for now. He was really crabby tonight so he went to bed super early, but I hope that he was just tired and that nothing is medically wrong. I am glad to have this surgery behind us. Here is to a healthy 2013!