Happy Birthday Regan

With her birthday on a weeknight, we didn't get to do much celebrating for Regan's recent big day. But we did try our hardest to make our oldest feel special when she turned 11 earlier this month. She has a good taste in food and picked Cheesecake Factory for dinner and then we came home, took a few pictures (photo bombed by Lincoln) and face timed with Grandma Jan in Texas as Regan opened gifts. I think it's safe to say that she was pleased as punch with her birthday celebration and happy as ever to be 11!

 

 

Although she can be dramatic and emotional, we love her to pieces. She (can be) incredibly patient with children, has a heart of gold for animals and her deep belly laughs are simply THE best!

Happy 11th Birthday Regan!

Allergy kid

Ever see the movie Gremlins? You know, the movie where the cute little cuddly critter turns into a monster?! Sometimes living with a child with food allergies makes me think of that movie. We're constantly thinking "don't feed him" (without checking ingredients)!

  

We spend our days reading labels, scouring the internet for a better understanding of terms, and educating people in our circle. I am a member of several facebook groups that offer support, receipes and even suggestions for dining out. We've learned what foods have hidden dairy, I even have screen shots like this on my phone for quick reminders:

I know the FDA rules for labels, and that we have to be cautious because it's not required to label for cross contamination, shared lines or "may contain" but could prove just as deadly to consume such a food. And then there's this....

 We shop around the perimeter of the store more than we ever have in our entire lives. Almost all of what we eat is made from scratch, I can't tell you the last time I prepared a boxed meal. Yes, it's better for all of us. But darn it, sometimes a box is just more convenient. Not to mentuon I'm frequently making him his own modified version of our meal. 

It pains me that I have to be mindful of cross contamination, not just in a restaurant, but also in our own home. Did I put that spoon into our pot of food, or his pot of food? I've had to throw out an entire pan of food because of this error. We joke when I find reciepes titled "One pan...." because inevitably it's always at least 2 if not more.

We've debated buying this shirt for Lincoln to take some stress out of gatherings.

Thankfully our friends are amazing at asking permission, and Lincoln is pretty darn good at asking an adult if he can have something, rather than just grabbing. Just last weekend a dear friend asked if he could give Lincoln "cream" soda, fearing it may have milk. I love that our friends take things as serious as they should be. But if an adult places a food near him, he is going to assume it's ok to eat, and it has given us some scares of accidental ingestion.

The girls are on just as much of a high alert. The other morning Regan called to  me "I think Lincoln has hives".....not how I wanted to start my morning. They check labels, they always say "go ask mom" but more importantly, they keep an eye on him to be sure he's only eating something we approve.

It's getting a little easier but will never be easy. Fingers crossed that he grows out of these allergies, but in the mean time, we won't be letting our guard down.

Happy Birthday Party Day Regan!

February is a month that can sneak up on us and be over in the blink of an eye. So in anticipation of a fairly busy month, we opted to sneak in Regan's birthday the first weekend. We sandwiched in a movie and a slumber party between a visit from my BFF and a super bowl party ("go big or go home" is my new mantra). So we invited a few of her close friends (she could have picked any of her 100 friends so it was super hard when we limited her to only 3!) and had pizza, ice cream cake and loaded up to see A Dog's Purpose at the theater. I cried, so did some of them, but we also laughed and got that 'all good' feeling at the end.

I was sad that I limited her to 3 friends, but super happy at the same time. Seems like 5th grade was the right time to have her first slumber party, and with keeping the numbers low, we kept any drama totally at bay. These girls are lovely, kids that I have known since they were 5, and I love each of them dearly.

They slept (fairly) well and were up around 7:30am ready for more food and girl time. I love that they included Lincoln and Sidney and didn't bat an eye at playing Hide 'n Seek with them for an hour :) Sweetness won my heart as he picked his favorite girl and followed close behind all day and night.

Although her actual birthday isn't for another several days, we got a good start on celebrating and have a full month ahead of us!

Winter show 2017

The girls are fortunate to be a part of a dance studio that has some pretty great values of fun over fame and inclusion of all kids. (Granted there are a few things that Ryan would like to change about the studio, but I'll leave his rant out of this post).

This past weekend they took part in the annual winter show. I'm so grateful that this (Christmas themed show) is held after the holidays or we may not get a chance to be a part. With all of the busy-ness of the holidays, adding extra weekend practices and a crazy show week to the mix would likely put me over the edge.

So after much anticipation and a lot of practice, we headed to a new local theater for dress rehearsal in a packed house! There were nearly 400 people at dress rehearsal alone; I'd say that was pretty good practice.

Each of the girls take part in 3 separate classes.

Regan does ballet, lyrical and danceline.

Sidney does acro (more on that in a bit), jazz and tap.

Regan got some compliments on her high kicks after her number at each show. She bashfully blushes and gets high on cloud 9 to know she is doing well on stage. Those legs of hers are l-o-n-g!

And this little one knows how to shake it up there. I chuckled that 2 of her teachers must have choreographed the dances with Sidney in mind. She sure can shake her hips!! I have a video of her at age 3 up on stage shaking away....she's a natural :)

This is her first year in acro (and only the 2nd for the studio). It's a class that combines gymnastics and dance. And she LOVES it! Might have something to do with the fact that during the winter show the younger class was combined with the older kids, or the fact that she aspires to be an Olympic gymnast one day.

Check out that tuck jump!

For weeks upon weeks, all that we heard was "I get to climb under Sarah!". We didn't exactly know what that meant but it meant the world to her to dance with an older girl.

This was show #2, just look at how cute and happy she was!

I love it :)

These girls put in countless hours of practice leading up to the show. There was some blood, sweat and tears and yet they adored every second of being on stage.

In the end, they were in 3 shows, dancing a total of 9 dances each spanning across 12 hours! Talk about a long day. We were all exhausted!

One word

Well actually it's 3. One for each kid. As I put the kids to bed tonight, I rocked Lincoln and watched as his foot tapped up and down and couldn't help but think the same thing that I do every time I'm trying to get him to bed. Boy is he active. And it got me thinking, I bet there is one word that describes each of these kids right now. And so, here we go.....

I'll start with Lincoln since I already gave his away. This boy is active. From sunrise to beyond sunset, he doesn't stop moving. His mouth is going a mile a minute with questions and statements as he learns about the world around us. He even talks in his sleep!, crying out for someone to get him his truck, wondering where his trains are, etc. His body never stops either, he darts in and out of clothes racks at the store, runs ahead of me 99% of the time and his favorite game is "run get me!". He likes large movement games: run, throw, kick. Go big or go home. That's our boy!

Then there's Sidney. She is strong. She is strong-willed, strong-minded, and though she is little, that girl has some serious strength! I have told her time and again, some day those traits will take her far in life, but for right now, it's not always easy to be her mother :) She is determined and stubborn but thankfully cute and likeable.

Last is Regan. This one is passionate. She's learning about persuasion in school and puts her heart and soul into ideas. Good thing she isn't super convincing yet or we'd be on our way to pick out a puppy. But oh can she be intense and extreme this oldest child. It's all or nothing with her!

We love these three and their very distinctive personalities. They are unique and adorable in their own ways and we wouldn't want it any other way!

The good, the bad and the ugly

I don't actually have pictures depicting all of these words (because who takes pictures in the moments I'm about to describe!), but I do have a lot of explanation on how our little man is good, bad and ugly!....

Life with a toddler (and two older siblings) is exciting, entertaining and downright exhausting. We have good, we have bad and we have completely ugly. Let's start with the good...

Lincoln is certainly the sweetest little boy I have ever known. 

*He is the first to say "sorry" or "I wuv you" and will try to make you smile when he knows you are upset. 

*He is quick to lend a helping hand, and enjoys helping in the kitchen, shoveling the driveway or putting away groceries. 

*He is genuinely concerned when someone is hurt. The other day Ryan slid down a few steps (likely due to his recent surgery) and Lincoln came running to be sure he was ok. He grabbed the items in Ryan's hands and carried them all the way down the stairs for him!

*And he always always always needs a big huge goodbye hug before I go.

And along with the good, we have to balance it with the bad. 

* He loves to tease his sisters, whether it means going into their rooms when asked to leave, touching them in the back seat of the car, or destroying their play area. 

* Although completely potty trained, he will intentionally miss the toilet, spraying his yellow water all over the bathroom floor. Laughing. 

* He likes to dump all of his toys from every room with zero intention of actually playing with them. And not just dump in one spot, nope, this kid likes to throw things clear across the room. 

And then there are the moments, in pure toddler form, where he is downright ugly!

* Like when he picks up his plate and tosses it clear across the room, with food flying through the air. 

* Or runs around the house, racing up to each person and using their legs (or something in that general area....) as a punching bag, darting away faster than anyone can catch him to stop the cycle (this turns into a disaster giggle game for him). 

* Or when he takes a bite of food, chews it up, and then spits it on his sister sitting next to him. Yes, he really does this. Poor Sidney. 

There certainly are days where he tests our limits and we are so grateful when bedtime rolls around. I have to remind all of us that these ugly moments won't last forever (thankfully!), and we just need to ride them out, stay consistent, and remember that the good far outweighs the bad! 

Best of 2016

As we bid farewell to 2016, I thought I would flashback to the best of our 2016 (as taken by my actual camera, not iPhone)....one from each month. This was not an easy task! Some months I had 5 of them I could pick, one month I barely  had one! It was an incredible year for our family. We love to have fun, explore and live life! Happy New Year!

Christmas 2016

Christmas day is one of my most favorite days of the year! I just love the feeling of Christmas :) We woke up to a houseful of presents and ate a fun breakfast of Christmas Tree cinnamon rolls (which I didn't get a picture of darn it).

In true kid form, these two were (not so) patiently waiting for the rest of the family to join them under the Christmas tree to see what Santa had left for them. They were just giddy, running back and forth between the tree and the rest of us, asking if we were ready yet and if they could open gifts. The excitement in the house was simply off the charts!

I politely asked that we not tear through the gifts as fast as we had in previous years. I know...I'm such a downer! But they abided by my request and took turns opening gifts (for the most part), and it was so much more fun! They got to see the excitement in each other's eyes and really pay attention to more than just themselves.

Lincoln got a few larger toys, one being a grill so he can stand outside and grill with daddy. We use our grill year round despite the temps so he's pretty pumped to help daddy!

He also scored this sweet ORANGE snow blower and is over the moon excited! Seriously, I don't understand where this wish-list came from, but he kept telling everyone that Santa was bringing him an orange (his favorite color) snow blower.
Wait...what!?

I'm so thankful that Santa came through! He's going to love helping out next time it snows!

Sidney and Regan used their own money this year (Regan's unprompted idea) to buy each other gifts. Sidney's reaction after opening her shopkins stuffed animal brought tears to my eyes. She raced over to Regan to give her a huge hug and nearly knocked her into the fireplace!

And Sidney scored a Little Live pet dog "Lulu" from Santa. It's the closest thing we're getting to a real pet around here so she's loving her up as much as possible. The thing even breathes like a real dog! Super cute :)

Grandma Jan and Papa came up in the rain (yes, it was raining in Minnesota on Christmas!) with their ugly sweaters to spend the rest of the day with us. At that moment, after seeing their awesome tops, we decided that next year we will ALL be finding ugly Christmas sweaters!! It's our new tradition, and Ryan has already been online looking for his!! I love it :)

We soaked in as much time with them as we could, seeing as though they departed for Texas after leaving us :( but thankfully they gave each of  us plane tickets to come visit and so now we are busy preparing for our winter vacation! 

I had to get a picture of each kiddo in front of the tree and then one together, because they are growing up just so fast.

Lincoln: 3 years old

Sidney: 8 years old (with Lulu)

Regan: 10 years

After a huge lunch with turkey, potatoes, and all of the fixings plus dessert, my dad promptly fell asleep snuggled next to Regan's new gigantic sized teddy bear!

One of my most favorite 'decorations' are all the Christmas cards we get throughout the month. We line them up this wall and occasionally I will find someone standing just staring at them. I found a way to hang on to them for longer than 3 weeks (thanks Pinterest!) and will be creating a cute little album to pull out again year after year. 

                               

I hope you and yours had the most lovely Christmas. Once again, I'm beyond thankful for our health and happiness.

Let's all just pardon Ryan's purple Vikes pants and recall that he had knee surgery only 3 days before Christmas. It added a bit of stress to our holiday but he has seemingly recovered just fine and again, makes us thankful for our health!

 Merry Christmas!

And before I forget, here was our 2016 Christmas Card: