Full weekends

Ryan and I looked at each other the other day and smiled at how full our weekend was. We couldn't have fit one more thing into it if we had tried. It was full, but it sure was fun! 

We kicked off the weekend with an 8:30am call time to the softball fields for Opening Ceremony. It's kind of a big deal around this part of our city, and so Regan was in her element as the teams paraded around the field with pride, posed for pictures and played a 2 inning scrimmage. Just as she was getting ready to bat, I took the 2 younger ones to Sidney's gymnastics practice so she can work on her meet routines. 

After some lunch and a little biking around the neighborhood, we packed up and headed to New Ulm for 24 hours. What was jammed into that short time period is draining to even type! We checked out 2 different parks.....Ryan and grandma Jan had some fun too :) 

We had dinner out, Regan's request, at Lamplighter. And after some baths (they were filthy from softball, gymnastics, a total of 3 different parks and a lot of time in the sun!), the kids crashed but woke early!

Ryan headed to the golf course for an early morning round (6:30am early!) with some of my relatives and I met up with my mom and some gal cousins for brunch, 'nails by Kenzie and Emma' and some playtime on the deck 

We got a surprise visit from my BFF who happened to be driving past :) These days, we'll take a 5 minute visit. Poor Lincoln was falling apart quickly and in need of a nap by 11am. My mom and I decided to take him on a drive around town in hopes the car would put him to sleep...eventually it did! So while Grandma Jan stayed on the sturdy ground in the car with Lincoln, I climbed the steps to Herman with the girls. 

Sidney's practicing counting for her end of the year assessments and so we counted each and every stair. I got 100 and they got somewhere in the 90's....that's a lot of stairs! 

Nap time ended, we descended the stairs and headed to pick up Ryan from my parent's house. Sidney and Grandma shared a jar of pickles as we got ready for the next event. Mmmmmm 😋

The whole reason we came to town was for Harlow's 3rd birthday party! Sweet little girl got a Peppa Pig (I still don't know who that is) party and our kiddos were happy to celebrate with her, even if it was only for a couple short hours. 

We climbed back into the car, prayed that Lincoln would take a decent nap, and drove back home for the final event of the weekend. 

The girls participated in our local ice show 2 months ago and now it was banquet time. Little did they know, we were aware of a BIG secret that was about to make one of them really happy.....

Sidney's group: Olaf, was awarded Best Show Number! And gosh almighty, were those little girls excited! I could have cried proud tears, but I was laughing too hard at her perfect reaction. 

Even Regn was proud of her and commented "it was the cutest number of the show"! Sure was Sid, congrats! 

And with that, this exhausted family literally fell into bed Sunday night! 

She rides!

With as crazy as life is around here, the last thing we were excited to hear was Sidney announce "I want to ride my bike without training wheels". It's not that we weren't ready for this phase, or happy for her eagerness, it's just that finding the time to teach a kid to ride a bike can be exhausting. And with 2 other kids in tow (busy kids!) we weren't sure we had the time to invest in getting her on her own. 

Well, let's just thank our lucky stars that she was a quick learner! We took off the training wheels and practiced for 30 minutes (probably less). She was getting the hang of it, but needed more work. The next day, she had enough confidence to ask to have her bike supported during take off and she did the rest. Where she got the idea that she was ready for this was beyond me, but she did it and succeeded! Two days later was her next opportunity to ride, and she just took off all on her own! Rode her bike around the neighborhood like she was an old pro. Click HERE for a video. 

She is quite proud of herself and we are so happy for her! Way to go Sid! 

18 months

We are now at another major milestone with Lincoln. Eighteen months. Oh my goodness how did that go so fast? Seriously, he will always be our little (er, I guess he was never really that little) baby boy. Nothing will ever change that. In fact, I talked with an elderly patient of mine recently who was describing her family to me. She went on to talk about her children and when she got to the last of her bunch, she chuckled and said "you know, the last one always is our baby boy". Isn't that the truth? I still think of Lincoln as this little guy who graced our lives and made this family complete. 

Oh boy has he grown. Over the last 18 months, we have laughed (and cried) with the tremendous amount of love he brings to us. He's a handful, that is for sure. But all 4 of us are so grateful for his silly antics, his constant giggles, and heck, even his screams! 

I'm determined to make him a good husband someday :) he loves to help out around the house, like my little shadow as we go about our days. 

He unloads the dishwasher....

He does the laundry...  

He loves to help cook (but dislikes the dress up part)...

And much prefers to snack while we cook

The kid has moves too! A family friend laughed at the recent dance class, as Lincoln raced around to all the studios to get his groove on. She commented "his future wife is going to love you if he learns to dance". Too bad Ryan's response when I told him that Lincoln wants tap shoes: "not happening". End of that conversation. 

He snuggles with me and hands over flowers with the cutest smile on the block. Oh this boy melts my heart.

But let's be real....he has some qualities from his daddy too 😘

At 18 months, he is keeping us on our toes and exploring his surroundings. In fast motion!

* he eats.....fruit. I swear he would eat only fruit if we let him. Given the choice of a cookie or fruit, hands down he will choose fruit. 

* he adores his sisters, and this week, he has a thing for Sidney. Thankfully that preference switches regularly so neither ever feels left out. 

* his hair is getting longer and more curly. We can't bear to cut it because the humidity makes some ultra curls and it's just too much sweetness! So for now, it stays. Besides, he's working on his hockey hair :) 

* he loves to be outside. Every minute of every day. It's where he would stay if we had nothing else on the agenda. Playing in dirt, in the sand, pushing his truck, sitting in his car, whatever we are doing, just take it outside. 

* he babbles a lot. But only has a few words in his vocabulary. It seems to be growing, and through signs and pointing, he gets his needs met with minimal screaming. We went through a long week where he screamed for everything. Boy, that was no fun at all! Thankfully we got that under control and he now tries to tell us what he wants before screaming. Don't get me wrong, there's still some screaming, but not every time he opens his mouth!
* sleep isn't his forte, but since his tubes, it's definitely better. He still naps like a champ, sometimes 3-4 hours!
* he wears 18-24 mo clothes and size 3-4 diapers (we're in transition now).
* although he still faces backwards in the car, it won't be long and we will have to turn him around. He dislikes car rides and it's becoming a challenge.
* he still likes his blanket and pacifier, and I'm starting to wonder if we need to get rid of the paci. :( He doesn't use it at all during the school day, not even nap! How they get those kids to behave so well at school just blows our minds. The benefit of peers I guess.
* he has the biggest brown eyes on the planet, I swear. I love when little old ladies comment on his big eyes and adorable curls. One lady recently said "well if that doesn't get you, his bouncy cheeks sure will!". You got it; he's simply adorable!
* official stats coming tomorrow.....

slow down sweet baby boy, and never stop snuggling! 

Best buds

At any moment of our day, two of the three kids are playing together and best of friends. It can be Lincoln and Regan, Lincoln and Sidney or Regan and Sidney. It varies constantly. But these two, their favorite thing to do is make each other laugh. It can be making silly faces, tearing around the house, or making a mess of something. Whatever it is, they like to laugh. 

So on the video below, when Sidney tried to get Lincoln to be the caboose on the slide, he was simply laughing to hard to understand what she was asking! She finally gets him to sit in front of her and their laughing continues as they descend the slide. I can't help but watch this video over and over again, their care free laughing is contagious! I love that these three kiddos of ours have each other. 

Click below for the video. 

https://youtu.be/BsCYZCWFiV0

Books

Both of the girls had a love for books at this age, and Lincoln is no different. Regan happens to have a bookshelf in her room and recently he emptied that thing in less than 3 minutes. Ryan forgets that the girls did these things too, and it takes just a few moments to clean up his fun. And so, I let him have his fun. 

Click below to listen to him "read". I've been trying to catch him for weeks and finally managed to do so! I just love his sweet voice as he works to make sense of the story. 

http://youtu.be/uYANQeRRcYc

Life is full

Life is full speed around this place lately. After reading a recent article titled "Busy is a Sickness", I don't like to say "we are busy" (though we certainly are!), I prefer to say "our lives are full". So what is it, that is keeping our lives so full these days......

The big kids are wrapping up their winter/school activities, while knee deep into spring activities and gearing up for summer. I've said it since Regan was in Kindergarten, and I sense I will say it until they all graduate, these months of April/May are tough for us. It's an over-lap of activities and a complete wrap up of the school year. When it boils down to it, our lives are full. Very full! 

Regan is practicing hard with her new fastpitch softball team 3 days/week and getting ready to start a season full of games and tournaments. Meanwhile, she's also wrapping up a year of weekly choir practice with Angelica and will have a whiz-bang concert at the new Ordway in 2 weeks, with a little preview next week at a local Assisted Living Facility. She'd like to get back with her swim team for the summer too but I'm just not sure it's possible to add practices 3 days/week to her already full schedule. Sidney will finish her year long weekly dance class with a recital in 3 weeks and that darling little ballerina is so excited! She's back in the saddle of gymnastics and recently learned that she's mastered necessary skills to advance to the next level, which means it will be a summer of learning front handsprings....please pray for intact bones! Speaking of summer, she'll be getting back into the pool for weekly swimming lessons to perfect those strokes a little more. This last activity is not negotiable for our kiddos.

At school, Sidney will show off all that she has learned with a fun Kindergarten graduation/music program just days before the bell rings for the last time this year and she's rehearsing and singing all of her days away. Regan is currently immersed in the dreaded MCA's and we are all ready for them to be over. Sprinkle in some Earth Day events, a few play dates, too many birthday parties to count, and we've got ourselves a very full two months!

Lincoln is just going with the flow. The kid has no choice. A friend recently looked at me, toting him around to various activities and commented "when my two were little, we got to stay home! Kuddos to you for letting your girls stay in their activities". At this stage, he's happy to be on the go. Afterall, a two our Saturday morning softball practice means he and I get two full hours at the nearby playground. Sometimes I think he is so used to being on the go, that he'd be bored if we stayed home all day long.

Ryan's managing to host his own play dates, er, I mean Stanley Cup playoff parties with some great friends. Come on NHL, do we have to drag out the season until summer?! He'll head over to Wisconsin in May for a concert for one of his most favorite artists; he's pretty thankful we managed to squeeze in this trip between softball tournaments and dance recitals :)  

As for me?, I'm praying to get in a massage one of these days, I think I've earned it! But this life is full, and we wouldn't have it any other way. 

Spring has sprung

 The weather this weekend was simply perfect (for spring). It was a wee bit windy, but when it feels like 70 and the sun is shining down on our faces, it's perfect in our minds. Plus, when you factor in the fact that it was snowing (monstrous size snowflakes) on Friday morning, a little wind is nothing.
Saturday morning was a "divide and conquer" type of day. With two active young girls, we often find ourselves having to split up duties to get everyone where they need to be. This weekend, I took Regan to a 2 hour softball practice while Ryan went to gymnastics with Sidney. Given the glorious weather, it was an easy decision to tote Lincoln along. We hung out at a nearby park and he was giddy with delight! 

After a quick snooze in the swing (check out that drool!), he played to his hearts content. I couldn't believe his giggles, they wouldn't stop. It was hilarious and I finally turned on the video on my phone. Click HERE for a little clip. He played so hard for those 2 hours that he napped for 4 hours in the afternoon! FOUR hours! And we had to wake him up at 4:30pm or he may have slept longer. 

Sunday morning we headed to Lake Harriet for a stroll around the lake. Lincoln fought like crazy to leave the house (he just wanted to play outside), but was super excited when we arrived at our destination. We brought along his red car because we knew he'd sit in that much longer than in his stroller. The girls brought their scooters and had quite the lesson about public trails. Between the ducks, the airplanes and all of the dogs, Lincoln was in toddler heaven!

They have a pretty fun playground at Lake Harriet so we burned off some energy climbing around for an hour. See Sidney way way up there?....I may have just given grandma Jan a heart attack with this picture :) 

Here's to spring time fun! 

Disney on Ice

We took all 3 kids to Disney on Ice-Frozen edition this past week. This was a long time in the making, seeing as though tickets went on sale roughly 10 months ago and we snatched them up right away. Holy was that a long wait! Ryan got concerned that the girls wouldn't be interested in Frozen any longer (the whole "I'm too old for princesses") and then there's Lincoln's recent antics at Easter (here), making us all wonder how the night was going to unfold. 

Thankfully the girls were giddy with excitement when we told them (we are smart enough to know they didn't need to be told 10 months ago!), and once these folks came out, Lincoln was all eyes!

Oh my was he sweet. The lady sitting next to me was just giddy listening to all of his "ooohs" and "ahhhs" but more importantly, his squealing giggles were delightful! I was crying listening to his belly laughs when any animal character was on the ice. Gosh almighty did he love those things! 

Despite a spilled $16 icee and lots of squirming out of Lincoln, we both think it was a major successful family outing and we are so happy to have taken the entire family! 

Siblings

I just love that these 3 have each other. To love, to pick on, to cherish to bother. They really do love each other, despite a lot of bickering. Now that Lincoln is a full on toddler, he's joining his big sisters at the table when it's homework time. I love to see them around the table, talking (even bickering sometimes), because it means they are bonding. 

It's so wonderful to see them learning from each other too. Sidney's sight words are hanging on the wall and we make her recite them regularly. Lincoln recently started insisting on sitting in the chair, pointing to the words and babbling his own way through each of the words too. Simply adorable!

And since it's National Sibling day, I thought I'd give a quick shout out to my big brother....who together, I'm sure we put a few gray hairs on our parents' heads :) 

Easter fun

Easter is still one of my most favorite holidays. I love the meaning, I love the colors and I love spring weather. We have celebrated each and every Easter as a family in our own home too...bonus! It means absolutely no travel. And for that, we are all happy! 

The Easter Bunny did not disappoint, and showed up with treats and gifts for the kiddos. Sidney claimed she didn't sleep much overnight, as she was simply too excited! I don't believe the girl actually sleeps anymore. 

Regan is super excited to get her eyes on this book. She read a few pages, paused and said "wait!, this actually happened to real people!?", amazed that anyone could actually live through such disasters. Note: this book is in the elementary school age group...so I'm hopeful it's not scary for her!

As is typical, he was more interested in his "treat" than any of the gifts. 

Both girls got one of these talking birds....and talk they will do! Honestly, the thing repeats what we say and then sings when you pet her back. Wonder how long it takes for the batteries to wear out :) 

After a disastrous attempt at church we had our private egg hunt! A little bit about church before I push it to the back of my mind and hope to forget the experience forever. Ryan said "Lincoln in church is like oil and water" and then we all later agreed that if you look up the definition of the 'devil' you will see a picture of Lincoln in church...yes, it was that bad. Just ask those people around us, but give them a day to get their hearing back after listening to his high pitched screaming when we wouldn't let him lick the floors, climb the nearby stairs only to fall off of them, and on and on. Move him to the lobby you say?, that wasn't any better, just more screaming and a lot of stair climbing/falling. How about move him downstairs?...well there he stood next to a lovely new mom and stood watch as she breastfed her newborn with Ryan providing his supervision, which just made it all awkward. As if we needed a reminder why we don't regularly attend church with a 1 year old! 

Ok, I'm going to forget about our morning now. 

Our egg hunt was gg--rrr--ee--aaa-ttt!! Again, it takes a village, and I'm so in love with our village. 

The kids all scurried through the back yard in search of plastic eggs filled with money and candy. 

That bunny was clever, hiding those eggs both high and low. The girls were sweet to let Lincoln take the low-lying obvious eggs and they searched for the hidden ones. 

It took him a long while to catch on, but eventually he joined in the fun and realized those plastic eggs did not belong in the bark of a tree, beside the rocks, or setting in the empty window basket. 

Happy Easter from our family to yours! 

...later dudes!