Catch Up

Here's a catch up post that is long overdue.  Excuse number one is that I did not have the time to get the hundreds of pictures off the camera.  Ryan tackled that job yesterday, so now I'm good to go.:)  Excuse number two is that there are just not enough hours in the day.  I went back to full time teaching on January 2 and anything that is not a necessity has been thrown to the side.  Sadly, this blog is one of them.  I wanted to do a quick catch up though, because I enjoy looking at my old posts and seeing what we had been up to!

 This girl turned 8 the beginning of January. 

 We celebrated Christmas day at my parent's house.  This is as good as it gets with 12 kiddos.  We also went to Orange City to celebrate there, but I can't seem to locate any pictures!

 Luke had his final pinewood derby with his Cub Scout troops.  The have now disbanded, so he is finished with Cub Scouts.  He really enjoyed it, so it's a bummer!

 Luke did a short second season of basketball.  He had fun and really improved.

 Luke turned 10 at the beginning of February.  He was gracious and shared a party with two of his cousins!

 Waddle back to November and we had fun celebrating Thanksgiving with family.

 Luke took on Oma Elle in chess.  I'm not sure who won.:)

 This was before our school Christmas program.  How did she get so grown up?

 We also had a Christmas program at church.  There was a lot of celebrating in the month of December.

Drew and Lauren also had a small Christmas program with their preschool.  Drew was a wise man and Lauren was Mary.  They both did a fabulous job and had fun.  

Fall Fun

We've been keeping busy around here with our normal school routines.  The kids are also involved in soccer, girl scouts, boy scouts and now basketball is beginning.  There doesn't seem to be a lot of downtime, but we are enjoying it and still finding time to spend together.  Maybe I'm just making excuses as to why my blog hasn't been updated in a while.:)

 This kid's smiles crack me up.  He was excited, it just doesn't look like it.:)

 Reagan, Drew & Lauren all did soccer through a local program.  They had a practice and a game every Saturday for 6 weeks.  I think this is the only Saturday we didn't have to bundle up! They all loved it though and I think they will play agan next fall.

 I never posted pictures of our kitchen after it flooded.  We still need to change out the old light fixture and hopefully install backsplash, but otherwise, it's pretty much complete.  We are still liking the change.

 Luke is playing on a basketball team with other 4th graders from his school.  Their first two games didn't go outstanding, but he had fun and he's definitely learning the game.  That's what we were hoping for!

 Here are a couple of other views.  I'm not sure why these pictures got separated.  We ended up buying a table off Craigslist, because our other one was very tired and needed to be replaced and who wants a spiffed up kitchen with an old, ugly table in it.:)

Both the girls decided to be Minnie Mouse this year.  I'm just now noticing Lauren's skirt in this picture.  I taped the dots on, because these are skirts they actually wear.  By the time she got back home, she didn't even have any dots left on the front of there.  I think her pumpkin kept knocking them off.



 Two Minnies, Buzz Lightyear, and a Star Wars guy (I can never tell them apart!)

 The kids had picked out pumpkins at the pumpkin patch and we finally had time to carve them on Sunday.  The kids always draw their faces and Ryan always does a great job of cutting them out. I stick with scooping the guts out.  It's less dangerous.:)

A New Year

The kids are off at their first day of a new school year.  They were both excited to go, which is always a huge plus.  I should say that Luke said he was excited for the first day....just not the second.:)  Luke said that I didn't need to walk him to his classroom, which made me a little sad, but I know that he's growing up.  I'm glad that he's comfortable at school and confident enough to face a new year by himself.  Reagan was a little nervous, but she has quite a few friends in her class, so I know she'll do great.  Her goal for the year is to not pull any cards (their form of discipline).  I told her if she accomplished that goal, I would take her to Adventureland next summer.:) 

 Reagan by her desk

 Luke with his teacher Mrs. Reha

 Checking out his new desk

 She wanted me to take countless pictures of her posing.:)

Winding Down

Summer vacation is coming to a close.  The bigs go back to school this week, but we have had a great summer.  I'm always a little sad when the kids go back to school.  I get tired of the fighting and the "I'm boreds", but I feel like I don't get to see them that much when they are in school all day.  This will be my last year with the twins home part of the day, so I'm going to enjoy it!

We went to the cabin one last time.  It wasn't as warm as August usually is, but the water wasn't bad and the kids never seem to mine.  They did a ton of fishing, but never caught a thing!

 

We met all the cousins at the zoo one morning.  I don't know who were crazier...the 12 kids or the animals.  They had a fun time and we ended our morning with a picnic at the park outside the zoo.

 

 

All the cousins, minus Makayla

The girls are always a lot more cooperative when it comes to having their picture taken.:)

The kids earned free tickets to an Iowa Cubs game through the summer reading program at the library.  It was a beautiful night at the game and as an added bonus Jason & Kristin and their kids and Grandpa & Grandma were at the game too. 

 I tried!:)

We spent our last summer break weekend in Pella.  Ryan had to go out of town for work and it breaks up the days for the rest of us! The kids got to have a sleepover with the cousins one night and at Grandpa & Grandma's the next night.  They had fun swimming in the cold, cold pool.  I had a sweatshirt on while I was taking these pics.:)  We went to the bakery and the park the next day and tried out G&G's new slip and slide.  Grandpa took the boys fishing that night.  Luke caught four bass.  Drew didn't catch anything, but he did have the pleasure of fish pooping all over his shirt.  Gross! Drew also got to ride in Grandpa's big truck and help him plant a tree.  He got a kick out of that.  What a great end to our summer vacation!