Happy birthday Kate!

My baby girl turned 5 today!! She said big goodbyes yesterday at preschool and was sorely disappointed this morning when she wasn't going to go to kindergarten. She said she was sure she was told she would go when she was five, and she already said goodbye to everyone! I explained to her that she needed to finish preschool first and that kindergarten would be waiting for her this fall, which seemed to satisfy her.

Its hard to believe it has already been 5 years since here Daddy and I sat there for hours just sitting with each other and watching Kate sleep with amazement. She was born with a huge smile on her face (literally), and five years later it is still there. She spreads love and smiles where ever she goes, and can already write her first, middle, and last name and is already starting the beginning steps to learn how to read.

Kate you bring joy into our hearts every single day. We are so lucky to have a lovely little lady bug like you!!

Happy birthday Kate Leah!

Happy birthday Steven!!!

My baby boy turned four today. I have never, ever in my life seen him so happy. I baked banana muffins for his class. He got a birthday goodie bag from the office. His aunt Gretchen and our friend Stephanie came over for dinner, he got presents, and cake. His happiness and excitement was a very rare treat that we enjoyed more than words.

You can really see the sparkle in his eyes!

He really labored over what kind of a cake he wanted me to make. He went between batman and darth vader for the last week. So ...

He got the best of both words, a batman (in chocolate) darth vader cake!! Darth vader is a candle and you light his light saber, what a hoot. He kept saying "My cake is weaaallly coo" (really cool) Its a phrase he picked up from his big sisters and only uses when he's really, really jazzed.

We got him a hand held video game called a DS. The spiderman lanyard around his neck is attatched to the DS so he can't drop it, and we got him a big chunky spiderman stylus to use. We weren't sure if he would be able to use it right away, but he took to it like a fish in the water. Using his stylus to manuver around his Diego! game we got for him. He was so entranced he even handled having the girls be really close to him with out getting upset, which is a rare treat for them.

I really love that we can buy somewhat educational games for pretty inexpensively, and that he finally has something he likes playing with. Of course I'm sure we will have to set a daily time limit, but as most of you know, there isn't much that Steven is interested in. So to find something that keeps his attention and that he enjoys is a rare treat.

Happy birthday baby boy, you make our even our darkest days shine bright!

Pumpkin-stravaganza!

After two long weeks of everyone being very sick, we are all on the mend I am very happy to report. This weekend we decided to enjoy fall as much as we could, and it was so much fun. We roasted sugar pumpkins and made puree. With the Puree we baked pumpkin muffins

We roasted the seeds for snacks

Each of the kids cleaned and carved their own pumpkin

I couldn't resist this picture of Aeryn, she's so thrilled.

Then we had a "big reveal" and lit the jack-o-lanterns once it was dark enough.

My favorite part of this picture is all the excited little faces peeking out of the window. They were all so proud! We finished the weekend off with a little bit of pumpkin pie with fresh whipped cream.

We love fall!!

It's a tough life!

It takes a LOT of work to be a preschooler, and on top of that to deal with insomnia like Steven struggles with daily. Steven not only does it every day with a smile,  but he's sure cute doing it too! He sure puts smiles on our face every single day!

Happy Fall!

Happy fall to everyone! The kids have been back in school for almost a month now, and everything is going great.

Kate has learned how to write her first, middle and last name, pretty good for being not quite five!

Callie's best friend Jessie just celebrated her 10th birthday. All the kids had so much fun at the party. On Friday Callie recieved a mustang pride award, for being such a good student!

Here's a picture of Steven with his respite provider, Mey. He loves her, you can really see it in the picture. He has struggled witht he transitions to and from school this year, but I know it is going to be a wonderful thing for him in the long run.

Aeryn is doing fantastic in school. She loves her teacher, and is so good at math. This year has been her best school year ever so far! Way to go Aeryn!

Other exciting news for us is that the state waiver moratorium is now over! So we have begun the long process of getting Steven's disability waiver enstated and all the services that go with that. What a huge blessing for our family!

Road trip!

The kids went to stay the night at Gramma's and Papa's house Saturday night, so Steve and I decided to take a last minute road trip to Kenai. We had a ton of fun (See the beach?) we goofed off and tried to relax. We went to this restaurant called the Bear's Den. When you open the front door you are greeted with a loud bear roar! Here's Steve being silly in the parking lot of the Bear's Den.

We had gorgeous weather Saturday, and we really enjoyed the drive. It was raining on our way home Sunday, but it was comforting and we enjoyed the drive home too. Our new car went 425 miles on one tank of gas (it cost 35$ to fill up) amazing!!! Gotta love those highway miles too! Thanks again to the grandparents, the kids had a blast. We did too!

Callie's first day of school

Today is the first day of school for Callie. Steven and Kate start back next week, and were sad to see her go (see them holding onto her legs for dear life?) I had to pry Steven off of Callie's leg so she could get out the door. Callie was really excited, and loves her new teacher Miss Press.