Andy’s Golden Birthday Party

Several months ago I asked Andy what kind of party he wanted for his 5th birthday and, without missing a beat, he told me Batman. So I scoured the internet, well Etsy, and found some printable party decorations for a steal.

 

 

 

Then one day, as I was sifting through the clearance racks at The Wal-Marts, I found a Batman t-shirt for $1 whole dollar. Score! Now Andy can match the theme!

Every year, because Andy is a Cinco De Mayo baby, we have a pinata. I bought a Batman pinata at a party store and while there, pawed through the clearance bins. I found Batman party favor boxes full of old candy and cheap toys for $1 whole dollar each and so I grabbed a bunch. Kids don’t care, right? Then I had a 40% off coupon which made them $.60. Frugal on accident.

And then! Instead of expensive, yet delicious, cupcakes from our local small-town bakery, Andy decided he just wanted Rice Krispie Treats for his “cake”. He had them as a snack at school a couple of weeks before and apparently couldn’t stop thinking about them. I kept asking him to make sure he was fine with that but he didn’t waver. He even helped me make them.

As far as decor went, I used a few of Andy’s little Batman figures and a large Batman robot toy that Chris found on clearance for %75 off. Am I sensing a theme here?

I made walking tacos with all the fixin’s, mexican rice, grapes on the side, and lemonade to drink. It was all very delicious!

Andy got a lot of really great gifts that he couldn’t wait to open up and play with. We all sure know how to spoil him!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had lots of fun with family and celebrating Andy!

 

Golden Boy

Our golden boy celebrated his golden birthday last weekend! He turned 5 years old on May 5th!

Earlier last week I took him for his well-child check-up where he had to get vaccines for Kindergarten enrollment. He was understandably nervous about the shots even though I prepared him in advance. When Nurse Claudia asked him to hop up onto the exam table, Andy was very hesitant but did it anyway. And when she administered the shots, he barely flinched and didn’t even cry. That’s my brave boy! Andy is 44.5 inches tall (85%) and weighs 40.8 pounds (55%). He is blessedly healthy with good hearing and vision. He has no excuse to pretend he can’t see what’s right in front of him or hear my instructions!

Andy is still picky and way too busy to eat. His pediatrician asked him what he would eat if he was stranded on an island and he could only eat one thing and he told her fish. I busted out laughing because the child would not eat fish if it saved his life! I totally expected him to say candy or donuts because that’s all he would eat if left to his own devices. We have been having many conversations about making good choices and he gets so proud of himself when he chooses strawberries or carrots or a banana, his favorite good choices. Up until this point we have pretty much let Andy eat just about anything he wants because he is just so skinny. But we have begun limiting sugar cereal, candy, chocolate milk, and his overall sugar intake.

Andy, oh Andy. He is stubborn, intelligent, sweet, thoughtful, artistic, busy (so busy!), outgoing, friendly, and can push my buttons like no other. We are the best of friends and the worst of enemies, him and I. Chris and I have been making a conscious effort to make one-on-one time for Andy. We think a lot of his negative behavior has to do with jealousy over his little brother, as well as sugar hence the limited diet, but when we take time with him and enforce positive behavior, we notice a remarkable change in his attitude. He just needs his mom and dad to pay a little attention!

Andy is such a blessing to our family! I can’t wait to see what God has in store for his life!

Lukey’s 1st Birthday Party

For months I anticipated Luke’s first birthday party and knew I wanted to do a sock monkey theme using the sock monkies the boys got from Grandma. What I didn’t want to do is spend a lot of money so I found a seller on Etsy who made sock monkey party printables for cheap and started from there. It was a lot of cutting out but the decorations turned out so cute.

We served Frito Boats-chili and cheese spooned over Fritos in their bag- and bananas and grapes.

I ordered chocolate cupcakes from our local bakery topped with their signature buttercream frosting. Yum! After wondering what the heck was going on while everyone was singing to him and why there was an open flame on his high chair tray, Luke dug into that cupcake like he’s been doing it his whole life.

He dug into his birthday gifts like he has been doing it his whole life, too. After opening one gift he would get upset when I put it to the side so he could open another. He got some fun stuff! Now he can play with his own laptop instead of putting his grimy fingers on mine.

We had such a fun party with lots of our good friends and family. Luke is one blessed little guy to have so many people who love him.

Lukas: Twelve Months Old

Last Friday, March 15th, at 7:07am, Luke turned ONE YEAR OLD! We were in a hotel room at a WI Dells resort and waterpark and sang Happy Birthday to our baby. We spent the morning out for breakfast and shopping and some of the afternoon at the waterpark. Unfortunately, Andy was sick so we left early and headed to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Luke had so much fun the short time we were in the water, though.

(An early morning game of Skee-Ball in the resort arcade.)

Luke weighs 21lbs 3ozs (50%) and is 31in long (94%). He keeps getting taller but with recent illnesses he can’t seem to gain weight very fast. He has a great appetite and tries new foods all the time. We are still nursing a few times a day but I am no longer getting up at 3:30am to pump before work. Instead, Luke gets a bottle of cow’s milk. The transition to milk was fairly easy so we’ve been trying different types of sippy cups to eventually wean from the bottle. Luke also loves to help us sweep and vacuum. He chases the vacuum around and as soon as he sees the pantry door open he books it to grab the broom. It’s quite funny!

(The birthday boy in blue at opening day of Paul Bunyan’s.)

Luke finally took his first steps last week but none since then. He has been showing signs of interest and bravely letting go of furniture for just a second while cruising but when he finds himself standing all alone it’s almost like he thinks to himself “uh, no” and he slowly lowers himself to the ground. He’s got a mean crawl but soon he will be running after his big brothers!

(Climbing the steps to the waterside.)

Recently, Luke experienced a sleep regression. He would wake up crying several times a night. Ironically, it started the day I was telling Chris how blessed we were to have good sleepers. The regression was quite frustrating and his cries would haunt me in my sleep. He has also been cutting his 7th tooth so that doesn’t help the situation. It is getting much better and we hope it stays that way.

(Made it to the top and just wants to play in the water coming out of the holes.)

I can hardly believe Luke’s first year is over. I must have kissed his dimpled cheeks a million times. Luke is so silly and sweet and sneaky too. He loves to play with his brothers and wrestle with daddy and any blanket crumpled on the floor. It’s so fun watching his personality develop. We just love him so much and look forward to watching him grow up. I know God has great plans for him!

All About Andy

When I was taking classes at a community college, much to my dismay, a speech class was required to complete my AA degree. I am not a fan of public speaking and I would rather stay out of the lime light but for the class I had to prepare four or five speeches. Truth be told, I managed to skip out of class for a couple of speech days and still got an A due to an instructor giving grace during his last semester before retirement. One of the two speeches I gave was on Mondegreens, which basically are the wrong lyrics to a song. I gave several examples of popular Mondegreens and had the class roaring with laughter. It was a bright moment in my life.

Andy, like many kids, is very good at making Mondegreens. We bought an album of Sunday School Songs and listen to it quite often. The lyrics to one of the songs are:

Clap your hands, all you people

Shout unto God with a voice of triumph

but Andy sings:

Clap your hands, all you people

Shout like a dog with a voice of child

It doesn’t even make sense but Mondegreens usually don’t. I’ve tried teaching him the correct words but he likes it his way. It doesn’t help that we crack up every time he sings it wrong.

Speaking of making things up. Our garage door has been giving us problems for months. It was no different one Sunday morning when we were heading to church and the garage door wouldn’t shut. Chris had to get out of the truck to enter the code on the keypad and on his way out he muttered “Son of a…” but didn’t finish the crude phrase. Andy finished it for him but instead of using the popular word, in his four-year-old innocence, he said “Daddy”. We just died laughing. Unknowingly, he provided some comic relief.

Andy loves people and going places and doing things. He is always asking me “Where are we going tomorrow?” When he comes home from school on Thursdays he reminds me that he has school in four days and we count them down through the weekend until Monday when he gets to go back. Sunday School is a bright spot during the weekend! Because of his excitement of getting out we like to plan fun things for him to do. One Saturday a month Home Depot holds a kids workshop so one of us takes him to make something useful. Recently he made a red race car. That was so cool!

On another Saturday this winter, the elementary school in town held a 4K Sock Hop. Andy talked about going for days and it didn’t disappoint. He had a blast and really enjoyed dancing to the fun 4K songs and running around with his friends.

So when one of my kids has an appointment coming up I like to talk it up and make it sound super fun. I know I can’t be the only mom who does this. Josh knows better but Andy is still blissfully ignorant. I took him to his first dentist appointment last week and he was so excited. Ironically, the dentist had just visited Andy’s school and talked about taking care of your teeth so that didn’t hurt the situation.On our way to the appointment, Josh disgustingly asked Andy why he was so excited. I shushed him right away not wanting him to sway Andy’s belief that getting your teeth clean is fun. Andy watched Josh get his teeth x-rayed, cleaned, flossed, inspected and covered in fluoride first. Andy could hardly contain his excitement. Then it was Andy’s turn. The Dental Hygenist tried getting x-rays but Andy’s mouth is still a little too small. Then she showed Andy all the instruments and let him feel them. She lowered his chair (like a ride!) and began to clean his teeth. He sat so still and was so good! Until the fluoride. The look on his face said it all. I wish I would have gotten a photo. I’m not sure he’s going to be so excited to see the dentist anymore. He did really well, though. Both of them did. And Luke fell asleep in my arms so that was a plus.

One more quick Andy story: Last night while sleeping he yelled out “Dad! It’s not corn, Dad!” several times. I wonder what he was dreaming about. It was really funny, though!

Lukas: Eleven Months Old

Luke is 11 months old already and has had a rather sick month! We’ve made a couple of trips to see his pediatrician because his breathing was reduced to a wheeze. A few treatments with our kid-friendly penguin nebulizer and he was back to normal…for a week. Then he developed a miserable fever that lasted three long days. It might have been related to teething but who can be sure? As far as teeth go, the ones on either side of the top two broke through so he now has six teeth and he loves to use them. I think he’s working on the ones next to the bottom two also.

When we saw the pediatrician, the nurse put Luke on the scale and he was almost 22 pounds. With his recent illnesses, he didn’t have much of an appetite. Thankfully, he’s feeling better and wanting to eat everything we’re eating again. He is still nursing several times a day which we will continue to do for an as yet undetermined amount of time. I’m just proud we made it this long! I’m trying to teach him how to drink out of a sippy cup but that’s not going so well. He’ll get it eventually.

At 9 months Josh took his first step and by 10 months Andy began walking. Luke? Not really interested. And that’s ok. He can stay my baby for a little while longer because soon he will be chasing his big brothers around. He is still comfortable in size 4 diapers and 12 month clothing. His dimpled cheeks have thinned out but his smile is just as adorable as ever. We have one more month of Luke’s first year and it will go by fast.

Josh, Josh and more Josh

In case the title didn’t give it away, this post is all about Josh!

In December, we celebrated Josh’s thirteenth birthday. Thirteen! Originally he was supposed to go to HangTime at church but that didn’t work out when the friends he goes with got sick. He was so disappointed and I was sad for him, especially since I didn’t plan anything special. G-ma and Papa came over and picked up some Chinese take-out for dinner. All the Grandmas and Grandpas called him to wish him a happy birthday. I also made Josh a giant card using different candies to write a birthday message. It was pretty low-key but we’ll celebrated the following weekend with family. I can’t believe that I am the mother of a teenager!

Josh reluctantly signed up for band again this year (7th grade) making this his second year of band. Don’t tell him, but I suspect he might be enjoying playing the trombone. In fact, he even volunteered, along with 20-some other kids, to play in the extracurricular Christmas band. They had several after-school practices and played a few songs at their Christmas band concert. Then they got to tour to the nursing home and daycares in town and play. During the school day! I got some pictures of the Christmas band with my phone from way back in the gym during the concert but I couldn’t even see him when the 7th grade band was playing. I’m pretty proud of him and the progress that he is making with the trombone. To be sure, he certainly needs to practice a whole lot more but he’s doing well so far.

(We applied UofM tattoos and showed them off. Silly!)

Over the last three years of baseball, football, wrestling, and ski club, Josh decided to give basketball a try for the first time this fall. His complete lack of experience had me a little concerned especially when he said, with some insecurity, “I don’t even know how to throw the ball, or shoot it, or whatever you do with it.” But he faced that insecurity head on and went to practice every day after school. This year his grade level had two teams: an A team and a B team, just like football. He made the B team and got to play lots of positions. He kept getting called on double dribbling and didn’t understand a lot of the rules at first but soon learned the different plays and the language of basketball. One game he made a basket right away and scored the first two points of the game. Unfortunately, those were the only two points his team scored until just before halftime. They lost most of their games but I think they had fun.

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I’m not sure if Josh will play next year but he has some time to think about it. He is not wrestling this year so we’ve had a bit of a break until baseball starts in April. The only activity he’s participating in this winter is ski club at Afton Alps, where he snowboards; his all-time favorite!

Luke: Ten Months Old

Today, Luke is 10 months old and growing by the minute. He is still around 20-21 pounds and wearing 12 month clothing but judging by his strong appetite it won’t be long before we are moving on to the next size up.

He loves to eat so we give him just about everything we eat. If we are snacking on something we better make sure we have enough to share with Luke. He will stand holding on to our legs or chair and yell at us until we give him some of what we have. None of us are exempt. He still has just the four front teeth but I was noticing the other day that there are little buds forming next to them on the top and the bottom and there is lots of drool and snot. We should probably gear ourselves up for another fun round of teething.

Luke just loves bath time. I told my mom the other day that Luke is his happiest in his highchair with a tray full of food or in the bath tub. When he hears the water running he’ll come crawling and try to hoist himself over the side of the tub to get in. The second we put him in the water he is splashing and grabbing for the toys. We can always cheer him up with a bath.

It has been so fun watching Luke’s personality develop and emerge. He is definitely getting more and more goofy. He squeals and smiles and dances to the music from his toys. He enjoys crawling over the bottom level of our coffee and side tables and barreling through the toys and blankets and pillows eternally covering our living room floor. He is a fun baby growing into a fun kid.

Christmas Day

I think it’s safe to say we are all on the mend despite the little cough that’s hanging on for far too long. We seem to be the healthiest we’ve been in weeks. Over the past few days I tried to strike a balance between resting and getting stuff done like wrap gifts and clean the house but on Saturday night, we were feeling a little stir-crazy so we braved the MOA and shopped for a couple of hours. We finally got to go to Crossroads on Sunday morning and to Grace on Christmas Eve for their candlelight services.

Christmas morning I was up at 7am. Alone. I stoked the fire (Ok. I flipped the switch.), brewed a cup of tea, and read the Christmas story while I waited for all my guys to get up. Believe it or not, the boys came downstairs just after 8am. It was a Christmas miracle! I kept thinking, “This is so backwards!” but I enjoyed the quiet time too. It was so fun watching them open their stockings and gifts. Andy really liked his superhero cape, Josh liked his Bears jammie pants, and Luke enjoyed eating the wrapping paper and ribbons.

Chris spoiled me rotten. A few days before Christmas, when I noticed gifts under the tree that I did not wrap, I asked him what he got me. He told me he got me an iPad mini and I told him to shut up. It was all very loving. When we were at the mall on Saturday I was looking at an iPad mini and teasingly suggested I better pick out a case for my new one. Chris agreed. Josh kept telling me to quit talking about it because I was just getting my hopes up. But on Christmas day I opened up my new iPad mini so I guess I do have to get a case.

 Later we went to Mom and Keith’s to have dinner and open gifts with the rest of the family. Josh has more cash, Andy (and Calin) made off with lots of Superhero action figures, and Luke got fun toys that make noise. Chris and I get to have date night. Marcia was back in MN and alone so she joined us for the festivities. It was great having her there.

We are gearing up for another round of celebrations this weekend. Bob and Barb are coming up then some of mom’s side of the family will be here for our family Christmas. And if I have my way Chris and I may even get away for a little date. I love the Christmas season and spending time with family celebrating the Light of the world!

Merry Christmas