Extended family pictures

Last November my parents arranged for some family pictures. I wanted to post them because I think they turned out great! My sister gets all the credit for the outfits. The last family picture we have, Mya and Olivia were 5 months old, so it was time for a new one! I wonder how many more people will be in the picture in 4 more years???!!?!



A high school friend of mine Auny Pole took the pictures. She takes pictures of my nieces a lot and does a great job!

Hawkeye/Gopher conflict

It's tough growing up with parents who are from two different states! Chris has been a gopher fan his whole life and I have been a Hawkeye. Being that we live in Iowa, Max sees a lot more "hawkeye" around him and all of his friends like the Hawks. I know things would be different if we lived in Minnesota, but I guess Chris is going to have to be okay with the fact that his boy likes the Hawkeyes better than the Gophers! Yesterday Chris, his brother Jeff and Max went to the basketball game in Iowa City. This is what they wore....



Max was pretty excited to come home and tell me that the Hawkeyes won the game! Chris said they had a lot of fun despite the loss, so that's the most important thing.

knives

These crazy allergies are not really something I hope to remember, but I wanted to write about our morning routine. The kids eat pretty much the same thing every morning. Max eats peanut butter and jelly toast, Mya eats a bagel with butter and Ivy eats either toast with jam or a bagel with butter. The tricky part these days is the use of knives! Depending on who wakes up first or wants to eat first, I can use 1-3 knives. Let me explain... If the order goes Ivy, Mya and then Max it's 1 knife. If it goes Mya, Ivy, Max, it's 2. If the order goes Max, Mya and then Ivy I have to use 3 knives! Soy butter for Ivy, regular butter for Mya and peanut butter for Max! Then I have to definitely use a different knife or spoon for the jam because I wouldn't want to get any peanut butter into the jam jar in case Mya ever wants something with jam! Crazy times....:) It would be hard to leave all three kids with someone who didn't understand these allergies because this is a lot to explain! Hopefully all of our careful label reading and utensil using will pay off and my girls will grow out of these allergies.

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day to everyone we love! We hope you have a great day! Chris made pink blueberry muffins for breakfast this morning so that was fun and both kids are having a big Valentine party in their classrooms which they are so excited about. Max is giving each kid a hot wheel car (I'm "wheelie" into you) I asked him if he would like to give the girls in his class something different and he said no..Mya loves to play cars! I agreed, so even the girls are getting cars:) Mya spent hours on hers. She is giving everyone a baggie of pretzel goldfish with a note that says "I'm so glad you're in my 'school'!" I had to explain that one to her a few times:)



Enjoy a few pictures through the years!
2012

2011

2010

2009

notes

I love notes. I love leaving notes for people and getting the notes myself. In high school I was notorious for exchanging notes in the hallway between classes. I think I only got in "trouble" once when the teacher read my note out loud to the class. In fact, I still have a little container full of notes I saved from high school!

Chris leaves me notes in the morning every once in awhile before he goes to work, if he is out of town, I always find one on my pillow before I go to bed, and he'll leave them occasionally on the dash board in my van, which I love. However...of all the notes I've received in my lifetime...the best are the ones Max is writing these days. This one is written to Chris and I.



(Translation: Mom and Dad--I love you when you be there. I love you every day you be there every day. You always be there for me. When I want someone to play with me when I am hurt you always be there for me!)

Clearly he needs a little bit of work putting space between each word, but it's pretty darn good in my biased opinion. He even got the exclamation point right at the end:) Love that little guy.

4 and a half!

A few weeks ago Mya had her half birthday! They celebrated at school and she was pretty excited about not being 4 anymore...the big jump to 4 1/2 is pretty cool! She is still asking (almost daily) when she will be 5 though and with Max's birthday coming up, I'm sure the number of times will only go up. Here's a little update on what she has been up to.

We decided right before Christmas that we're going to send her to kindergarten next year. It was not an easy decision at all. All signs were pointing to her going. (except my gut...) I think I just really wanted her home one more year. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that she is definitely ready and keeping her back might actually be a bad thing. She goes to preschool 4 mornings a week and just recently she has been very mad on Friday mornings that she can't go to school. Plus another big thing was that there is really nothing in Dubuque for her to do next year that isn't something she has either done already, costs $500/month, or makes her take a nap while there. (she would kill me btw if I sent her somewhere that she had to take a nap. She hasn't napped regularly in a couple of years!) So....kindergarten it is! Thankfully we still have 6 months before she has to go.

She is really into playing with her dolls and her doll house lately. I laid out her babies (22 of them) the other day and asked her to pick a few that we could give away and the only one she picked was Chris's old cabbage patch from when he was little. Pretty much the only one we can't get rid of! Honestly she plays with almost all of them, so I guess I'll keep them around a little longer. (here she is watching her morning cartoons the other day holding her baby:)

She is becoming very independent...can bathe herself, wash her hair, get out of the tub and dressed in pj's, comb her hair and brush her teeth all by herself! (wish her big bro could do the same....:) I have totally resigned myself to the fact that she will probably never wear jeans. We don't really have fights anymore because I let her wear whatever she wants. I just took everything out of her drawers that I wouldn't want her to wear in public!

She is still a very good big sister and is constantly wanting to pick Ivy up, drag her around on a blanket, and go down the slide with her. She wants to get her out of her crib in the worst way, but isn't quite tall enough. She is becoming a good little tennis player and can hit a mean serve in our nightly family volleyball games in the basement. She is also way better than I care to admit at playing the Wii. I had no interest in video games growing up despite the fact that my brother asked me constantly to play with him. I'm glad it's something she and Max can do together...wish it wasn't a video game though! She is in swimming lessons right now and is starting at a new gymnastics place in March. We are working on her not getting us up at night, not twirling her hair, not putting her hair in her mouth and not tattling! That's Mya in a nut shell right now! Wish we could freeze time right.about.now.