Dancing Princess

After 6 weeks of dance class, Jenna was ready to show off what she had learned. Her group did 1 tap dance, and 1 ballet type dance.  She's the one in purple on the left.  She's still singing & dancing for us!  In other Jenna news she also moved up a level in gymnastics!  She's was a monkey (age 3-4), but is now a tiger (ages 5-6) - yay Jenna!

Practice

Mikey - 10 months

Mikey turned 10 months old this week (where does the time go?) so to help him celebrate we gave him an oppurtunity to practice for his 1st birthday.....with a mini cupcake.  Based on how he ended up, I think he'll be all ready to go when his birthday rolls around!



hmm...what's this?



it's squishy...



tastes pretty good too!



yum, yum - can I have more?



A visit with Santa

We took the kids to see Santa last week....Andrew and Jenna were super excited and planned out exactly what they would be asking for and how they were supposed to behave in order to ensure Santa would not only hear their request, but bring it to them for Christmas.
Mikey fell asleep on the drive over to Santa, so Andrew & Jenna went up talked Santa and got their picture taken (aren't they cute!).

While the kids were hanging out with friends that were there, getting tattoo's, and eating cookies Mikey woke up.  After a bit, we thought we'd attempt a picture of all three kids....let's just say Mikey was NOT impressed with Santa.

(pure terror)

(can you hear him screaming?)

The saving grace is that he's too young to remember this, so hopefully we won't have to pay for therapy when he's older (hehehe).  Yep, we managed to get the classic kid with Santa pictures (thanks Mikey!).  Mikey kept an eye on Santa for the rest of the time we where there...you never know when he might come over & attempt to talk to you :-)

Thanksgiving

We kicked off Thanksgiving week with a Thanksgiving "feast" at Jenna's school.  She was very excited that all the grandparents were going to come to her school.

Can't tell she was excited can you?

 Everyone getting ready for the feast:

 Being silly in her classroom:

This year we ended up only getting to see the Bongers family, Grandma & Grandpa Fullerton were under the weather so we didn't get to see them.  The kids enjoyed hanging out with everyone.  Here Mikey eating some of the turkey that uncle Paul made in his smoker.  Mikey loved the turkey & ate a ton of it!  It was fun to see him in my highchair too :-)

 Here are Mikey & Martin playing.  Franklin was in the mix too, but I wasn't able to get a picture with all 3 little boys.

 It wouldn't be a holiday if we didn't attempt a picture of Grandma & Grandpa with all the grandkids....good luck getting everyone to not only look at the camera, but have their eyes open & be smiling at the same time!

 We also got to celebrate Grandpa's birthday.  Jenna was very excited to be able to sing him happy birthday, and both kids enjoyed blowing out the candles.  Mikey seemed to like the cake too, especially the frosting :-)

Rock Star Princess

While Bruce was hunting Jenna put on a concert for us....she was a Rock Star Princess.

It cracked me up that every time the guitar stopped playing she'd stop singing.  There were many performances over the course of the weekend, and apparently only the fireplace is an appropriate stage for a rock star princess (I offered up the couch).   There were even a few songs that she demanded her adoring fans (Mikey & I) joined her on stage, and of course we obliged.

Although most of her songs are all made up, she does love to sing.  Lately her choices for songs have been the Christmas music she is learning for the daycare program or preschool program.  I've been attempting to capture it on video, but haven't been able to get it yet.  Some of her lyrics are pretty entertaining.

We're back!

After a crazy busy summer & start to the school year, I'm going to attempt to do a way better job about posting. Thanks to those of you that have inquired about the lack of posts, it reminds me that people do read this, and they want to know how the kiddo's are doing and what we've been up to.

Over the summer we were able to spend some time at the lake a few different times. All of them were fun, and we are looking forward to spending time at the lake again next summer. Mikey proved that he's a trooper and seemed to enjoy the lake just as much as the rest of the us, altough he wasn't too fond of the life jacket, but I think that is only because he can't lay down very well in it.

So let's see.....In late August and September we had a lot of 1st's. Mikey's 1st Twins game, 1st days of school, Mikey's 1st trip to the state fair and the start of a new daycare.

We took the kids to an evening game the week school started. Everyone was super excited, including Mikey. All the noise didn't go over so well with Mikey, but thanks to the wonderful people at Target field, he was outfitted with ear plugs, and then proceeded to sleep thru most of the game. Here are Andrew & Jenna posing with Kilabrew:

Here's Andrew on his 1st day of school. Hard to believe we now have a 1st grader!

Mikey was sleeping so he's missing, but here are Andrew & Jenna on Andrew's 1st day:


The next day was Jenna's 1st day of Preschool! She was super excited about going to school.

Andrew & Jenna all ready for Jenna's 1st day:

Then on Labor day weekend, we braved the crowds at the State Fair with the Ihrke's (which is becoming a yearly tradition). Here are the kids waiting (almost patiently) for their Sweet Martha's cookies:



After spending 6 years at the same daycare, she let us know in mid-August she was closing so she could move back to Nebraska to be closer to her parents. Once over my shock, I realized I only had 3 weeks to find someplace for both Jenna & Mikey! Placing an infant in 3 weeks is no small feat, but we were super fortunate and found a place. We feel very lucky to have found Matt, and the kids seem to really like it there. Yes, you read that correctly the kids are going to a daddy daycare...he's awesome. They even go on field trips, which is unusual for an in home daycare. Here's a picture of Mikey all ready to go for his 1st day at Matt's:

We decided to let all 3 kids take a bath together...Mikey LOVES the water, and seemed to enjoy splashing even more when he had an audience. He still seems to think his sibling are the best things ever, and they still adore him (we're pretty lucky!).

Thanks to Grandpa Bongers, Andrew has been using Uncle Paul's old bow to fine tune his archery skills (well....maybe develop skills...). He loves shooting the bow and is getting really good at it.

Jenna dotes on Mikey most of the time, and seems to firmly believe she needs to be his main source of entertainment. While 'shopping' one day it was determined that he could fit in the cart...he enjoyed the ride. What this picture didn't capture is that Sadie was following her around like a little mother hen, not sure if the dog thought she could catch Mikey if the cart tipped over or what, but she appeared very concerned about the whole situation.

Our leaf pile is no where near what most peoples are (especially the grandparents & Uncle Paul's) but the kids still had fun running & jumping into them. They did get to jump into leaves at Grandma & Grandpa Bongers house, and really enjoyed the big pile there.

Here are the kiddo's on Halloween (Andrew - Captain Rex a clone trooper from Star Wars, Jenna - Super Girl, and Mikey - Yoda):
I love this picture of Mikey. As I said earlier, he LOVES the water:

Here's a picture of all 3 kids, Mikey is obsessed with chewing on his fingers, and when he wasn't chewing on his fingers, he was pulling Jenna's hair. Never a dull moment!

After a fun day playing at Matt's (daycare) Mikey was too tired to finish eating...he feel asleep between bites!
Okay...that's it for now. I hope you've enjoyed catching up a little bit!

Mikey's 1st day

Mikey started daycare with Jenna, and so far things have gone really well. Jenna seems to enjoy having Mike there with her, and I'm sure he's comforted (or at least entertained) by having her there. Here are some pictures from his 1st day at Melissa's:

'Big' boy...all ready to go:

One last snuggle:

On the way to Melissa's Jenna explained the 'rules' to Mikey, it was pretty cute. He's one lucky little boy to have constant entertainment in the form of Jenna. He's either going to think it's completely normal to have someone constantly talking to him, or he'll be deaf in one ear; guess we'll have to wait and see! Now if we can just get him to not have blows outs everyday while at daycare.....

Monster Cookies & Monster Smiles

With some of the loot from Easter we made Monster cookies, here are some pictures of Andrew & Jenna helping:

Their favorite part of helping bake....licking everything of course!

Showing a little sibling love:

And here's the monster smile that Mikey loves to flash:
He loves to play patty cake, which is what he was doing in the picture. He's still a very happy little guy, and he adores his siblings so we get to see lots of smiles :-)

Easter (Part 3)

After all the fun in Owatonna, we headed to Faribault to have Easter with Bongers. That Easter bunny was extra busy in Faribault...he hid eggs for all the grand kids and since Andrew & Jenna are the only ones that are walking, they got to find all the eggs!

Jenna hunting for eggs:

Andrew searching:

Mikey chillin' with Grandpa Vern:

Grandma Dee with all her great grand kids:

After all this Easter, everyone was pretty tuckered out....now to find hiding spots for all the candy.....

Easter (Part 2)

After Easter morning at our house, we headed to Owatonna to have Easter with the Fullertons. Here are some pictures from the day:

listening to the letter from the bunny:

Mikey all ready to help out with the hunt:
And they're off!
Wow...look at all those eggs!

Testing out his airplane (cool!):

Take off.....

Jenna walking Sir Thor:

Jenna & Sir Thor's walk didn't end very well...luckily Uncle Tom was there to grab the leash just as Thor & Jenna were buzzed by the airplane. Pretty sure that Thor will never be a fan of the airplane, and thankfully Tom saved Jenna from a trip across the yard w/ Thor.

Easter (part 1)

The kids really enjoyed getting ready for the Easter bunny this year, and loved dying the eggs. Along with dying eggs, Easter bunny prep at our house this year also required a clean playroom & clean bedrooms; otherwise the bunny wasn't going to come. Good thing he let mom & dad know the new rules, otherwise our house may have been skipped.

Here are the kids all ready to dye eggs:

Waiting (almost patiently):
Checking the eggs:

All that hard work paid off, the Bunny came! Since Andrew & Jenna were a flurry of activity, Mikey was the only one slow enough to get a picture of....which I'm sure will not be the case next year :-)

Next up - Easter @ the grandparents. Mr. Easter Bunny was busy.....he hid eggs, baskets & presents for the kids at their houses too!