In just five months (almost).

Addy has gotten so big in just five short months. She has gone from a tiny, wrinkly love muffin to a not so tiny, rolly pollie love muffin with dimples, lots of dimples.

My Silly Kid.

Because I need to start somewhere...

1. Pat worked late every night last week. It gets to be a lot when I don't have my partner in crime walk in the door to rescue me during the witching hour. The one thing that got me through was when the kiddos were tucked into bed and drifting off to sleep, I would veg on the couch and watch a daily taped episode of Ellen Degeneres. I heart Ellen!

2. My mantel is still decorated with a summer theme. Oh the horror! Here are some cute fall leaf printables I might have to use once I finally get my butt in gear and change to a fall theme. Here is some inspiration as well.

3. I also had Owen finger paint one afternoon last week with the hopes of creating something like this for my fall mantel or somewhere in my house. 

4. I love Fall...love, love, love it! But, I'm not quite ready for it as I am still mourning the loss of summer. Crazy as it sounds though,  I am having a craving for soup making. I want to make batches and batches of soup to freeze for the impending Minnesota winter. I'm weird like that. So far I'm thinking....
lasagna soup
beer cheese soup
chicken tortilla soup
Copycat Olive Garden e Fagioli soup 
Corn and Chicken Chowder 

**I started this post last week...oh that is how I roll these days. Anywho, between now and then, I made the Lasagna Soup recipe. It is so fantastic...so delicious....so yummy! I added all the cheeses she recommended (of course, I am from Wisconsin, you know), which is a must if you make it too.

5. Now I need to eat my next batch of soup out of one of these.

6. Owen is still telling us about all his visits to Africa. He goes there everyday. Most recently, Owen told us he came upon a giraffe with a broken neck, "but she was okay mommy because I stapled and taped her neck back on". I think we will need to take this child on a Bison Safari. Right here in Minnesota...who knew?!?

7. Speaking of Owen, he is liking preschool, but when I asked him if he wanted to go back this week he said very matter of factly, "Ummm, no." When I asked him why, he told me, "well Mommy because you know that block room with all the blocks....well, I have to help pick up the blocks and that is way to hard on me...I just can't do it."  And that is exactly why preschool will be good for him.

 

8. And speaking of school, Jack is in love with Kindergarten. He is so happy and just plain ole' excited about the whole experience. I don't get a lot of information from him, but the stuff he is pumped about, he shares with me. For example, daily recess, mastering the monkey bars on the playground, learning syllables, everything single thing about Phy. Ed., hot lunch, learning to write his name in kindergarten style, and his very first field trip on a bus (bus being the highlight).

 9. Addy needs a pair of these as soon as she starts walking.

10. I just bought a couple of these for her room. Owls make me smile.

11.

 

 12. I am still filled with Instalove.

Adelyn: 4 months

Adelyn is now a little over 4 months old. This is crazy to me! We met a 5 week-old baby girl last night and sometimes it seems as though Addy is still that tiny. Oh but she is most definitely not tiny.  She continues to be a great little eater. We have introduced solid foods, which she seems to like for only about 10 minutes. She then fusses to get the heck out of the highchair because she would rather nurse or have a toasty warm bottle. And speaking of bottles, Addy is starting to prefer those over nursing. 

She smiles constantly and we almost have her laughing. When I am alone with her, Addy talks up a storm, probably because she finally has a chance to. Addy has mastered rolling from belly to back and from back to side. She can also sit up for a few seconds on her own. Her favorite activity is standing, girl loves to stand all.the.time. She is just mesmerized by her brothers and she follows their voices and activity around the room. Today, Addy burped like a 10 year-old little boy and Jack and Owen were rolling on the floor with laughter.

She sure is a sweetie and we continue to love her to pieces.

Owen and Preschool.

Owen was so excited to finally be starting preschool today.

Super duper excited! Can you tell?

It's hard to believe that Owen is officially a preschooler. I remember when Jack started preschool two years ago, Owen would cry because he so badly wanted to go with him. Then over time, Owen began to really enjoy the one-on-one time he got to spend with his Momma. For two years, he was my little errand, shopping, breakfast, Starbucks, playing, park buddy. During our times alone, Owen would always say, "what's next Mommy...what store now Mommy?" I'm going to miss that and I think he will too. He made mention of this today as he told me he wished we could just be alone without his baby sister. This came as a surprise because he is very much in love with her. We will still have our buddy time though, but now Addy will be our buddy too.

Anyway, back to being a preschooler...

Today was his official first day of school as yesterday parents went along. This morning, he had one small moment of grumbles that he didn't want to go and he wanted to stay home with me. However, after I talked about how much fun he was going to have, he quickly got over those grumbles. Owen happily went in without any tears and then when I picked up him after, he told me, "Mommy, I had the best time...I love my preschool". Awesomesauce.

Not so awesomesauce...this huge bruise/welt/goose egg that Owen got on his forehead (it looks way worse in person and as it's healing, it gets uglier and uglier).

Last night, when he was supposed to be sleeping in his bed, Owen was actually jumping on his bed. He was just getting back into bed after changing his jammie shirt for the third time. Owen was pretending to be Superman and he flew/dove head first into his pillows. However, he missed his pillows and dove straight into his wood headboard. He was so hysterically crying that he threw up on Pat and he could barely speak to tell us what happened. Head injuries usually make me us freak out, but we remained relatively calm. Pat bear hugged Owen, icing is forehead for a long time. He also slept with him, just in case. He's completely fine today, thank goodness. It could have been a lot worse. 

Owen was back to jumping on the bed tonight...sheesh!

Jack and Kindergarten.

I thought this day would never come. Okay, I knew it would come, but not this soon. It seemed as though I was thinking about it and talking about it forever and then BAM!...Jack became a Kindergartner. He's now three days in and absolutely loving every minute of it.

We talked a lot about Jack starting school over the weekend while we were with family. This made my emotions start brewing in my chest and my throat would get tight with sadness...pure sadness. I just knew that come his first day, I would be a weeping mess as I was kissing him goodbye and sending him off into the big, real world. 

To my surprise this was not the case on Tuesday morning. Addy was awake almost every hour the night prior, so I woke up later than I had planned. It was then a busy, mad dash to get us all ready, get pictures of Jack and get him to and walk him into school. I just didn't even have time to be a weeping mess that morning. Sad, yes I was very sad, but no tears. And Jack was all, I'm good Mommy...you don't need to hold my hand Mommy...get going Mommy.

Jack's highlight of Kindergarten thus far...recess. Such a boy.

1st Day of Kindergarten

2012

 

1st Day of Preschool

2011

The night before...

Twas the night before Kindergarten

and as they prepared,

kids were excited,

and a little bit scared.
 (taken from this book)

 Jack is totally prepared and excited for his big first day of Kindergarten. He tells me that he is not the least bit scared or nervous. We packed up his backpack with some last minute items, we layed out a new outfit complete with basketball shorts (with a scrunchie top-his fav) and we snuggled in bed, talking about what the first day with be like. I kissed Jack goodnight and told him even though I will miss him terribly, I will be okay because he is beyond ready for Kindergarten and he is going to have a blast. Me on the other hand...it might take me a few days to adjust and get the emotional lump in my throat to disapear. Ugh..where did these last 5 years go?

 Well, I am now off to make his lunch complete with one of these.

Labor Day Weekend.

We spent the weekend at my in-laws cabin in Northern Wisconsin. We had three beautiful days, which was a great way to end our summer. My camera is on the fritz and desperately needs to be serviced, so here are a few camera pics.

Jack kayaked for the very first time and it was a major hit for him. He fell in the love with that little yellow kayak and he spent most of his weekend paddling away in it on the lake. He deems this experience as his favorite part of the weekend. Watching him was mine.

Owen tubed behind the boat several times, but it always had to be at very slow speed. So Owen accomplished two things, tubing and surfing. He was pretty proud of himself and so were we.

Adelyn spent most of her time being loved up on by her cousins, aunt and grandma. And chilaxin by the water.