Girly Boy…

Kate has not made it a secret that she would like to have a sister. :)  My good friend, Wendy, had a precious baby girl a week ago, and it brought Kate’s desires back to the forefront of her thoughts.  I told her it is possible that she would never have a sister and at best, it could be quite a long time, especially to a 4 year old.  She took the news pretty well.  She decided if she can’t have a sister, she will just make do with Creighton. 

Spring

Dear Spring,

I would appreciate it very much if you would come soon.  You see, I have a daughter, she is very high energy, and when she cannot spend every minute of every day outside, she resorts to doing the things that are pictured below.  If you could come a little early, maybe just maybe our whole house will not end up covered in something it should not be (fingernail polish, permanent marker, etc.)   Thanks.

For those wondering how the fingernail polish incident turned out, the fingernail polish has been taken away indefinitely and she did not get to sleep with her white blanket that night.   

   

In other news, I had her preschool parent/teacher conference last week and her teacher said she is doing great, she’s ready for kindergarten, AND she has one of the longer attention spans of all the kids in her class.  God bless preschool teachers.  Just so you don’t think I only catch her doing “bad” things, I did catch her with a broom and dustpan cleaning up a mess she had made without being asked.  She’s a ton of fun, but man alive, she wears me out.  My Mom is right, I haven’t been bored in a REALLY long time.  :) 

Lincoln is doing great in the potty training ordeal.  We are down to one diaper a day (night time) and he has not had any accidents this week (it is only Tuesday though).  But, we’re excited for positive progress!

Creighton has started holding his hands above his head.  We don’t know why, if he is doing “So big” or what, but he thinks it is really funny.  I tried to catch him at it last night, but he’s a quick little guy, even with an SLR camera. :)

 

President’s Day

Another week has evaporated.  We really enjoyed the warmer temperatures from last week!  We had a busy week, but didn’t take a lot of pictures.  Here is another one of the happy baby, hopefully he will still be that happy after I take him for his 6 month shots today. :)


We’ve started the gaggy process of potty training Lincoln.  He is successful about 60% of the time.  It gets better everyday, but oh how I dislike potty training.

Kate got her first haircut by someone other than me.  I just wasn’t sure what to do with it.  Grace did a great job on it and Kate actually did well sitting still enough for her to cut it.



Kate didn’t have preschool yesterday, so we ventured over to the Children’s Museum.  The kids love going there, but I’m not adventurous enough to tackle it by myself.  Mike offered to take a few hours off work and go with us, which worked out really well.  Another great trip. 

    

Another February

I don’t know if anyone else has this experience, but I have noticed over the course of the past several years that I always struggle in February. I more easily get down, discouraged, and just blue. I guess the silver lining of having a “blue month” is that it is the shortest month of the year and it is now more than half over. :) I think my struggle with the month of February has only gotten worse since the addition of Kate to our lives. Kate loves life, is lively, and full of spirit. So, when the temps dip to single digits, she gets stuck inside, not necessarily because I think she couldn’t go out, but because I don’t want to go out. :) Why not send her out by herself you ask, you obviously don’t know Kate, she’d end up in Minier, I’m quite certain of it. Our latest Kate battle is the 60 minutes immediately following preschool. She comes home, immediately messes with Creighton and Lincoln and commences to be a truly awful child for one hour. I do not know what happens at that point, but she totally turns it off and returns to her good natured self. However, by then, I’m usually about to blow a gasket, although I’m learning how to manage my emotions better, most days it’s okay actually, but there is that occasional day when I think she just might push me right over the edge. So, I’m still trying to figure out what it is that I should do with her for the first 60 minutes after she is home from preschool…make her go play in her room for an hour, make her run for an hour, I just really have no idea. On the plus side, we have seen her mature and develop so much, so to those of you out there with kids with lots of spirit, take heart, it’s not always as challenging as at that 18 –24 month stage! It’s awesome to see some of what we have been trying to teach her sink in. We have been working on some memory verses with Kate and Lincoln, themed toward things that they have trouble with (being kind, being afraid, etc). A few days ago we were making valentines for her preschool class. She wasn’t sure she really wanted to give them to her classmates. I was about to encourage her to think about being kind, but before I could open my mouth she said, “Oh, I get it. Consider others better than yourselves (part of one of her Bible memory verses) I should give my friends my valentines.” It was so encouraging in the face of a challenging time with her, that she is listening, it’s starting to click.

Lincoln is starting to become quite the funny kid. He loves to say things to make us laugh. He especially loves to make Kate laugh. He makes a lot of funny faces. Our biggest challenge with him is helping him work on not being quite so shy and potty training. If anyone really loves the potty training challenge, I would lend him to you for a few days. I’m kidding…mostly. Anyway, now that I’ve bored you to tears, here are a few pictures.

One evening last week we needed a babysitter. Our kiddos LOVE my Aunt Joyce and who wouldn’t?? She reads to them, makes cookies with them, and a multitude of other fun things! Thanks Aunt Joyce!!


Happy lil’ guy


There is no way that Creighton will actually make it to the Doctor recommended age before trying certain foods with his siblings around. :)

One morning before church Lincoln was adamant that he needed his picture taken with his dad.


We also celebrated Feb Rassi b-days last Sunday. But since the picture I took isn’t very flattering of anyone, I won’t post it. *See, Dad R, at least I’m not a mean picture taker :)*

Not Much

There hasn’t been much going on lately, what with the cold and snow, but here are a few pictures anyway.

One afternoon Lincoln fell out of his bed during his nap and it never even phased him. :)

Kate got a Sharpie marker during quiet time and ended up with lovely orange marker on her cheeks and lips. Apparently she was putting on make up. It has faded a lot, but is still there.


We watched the Super Bowl with Duane and Alissa and Kevin and Jolynn. We are so thankful for such good friends and that our kids are becoming friends now as well!

Creighton is very happy to report that he can sit up now.

Blizzard

I’m not sure how much snow we have ended up with, but it’s plenty.  I’m thankful for our warm home and that we did not lose power! 

This is what happens when you realize you forgot to take the screens off your windows in the middle of a “historic” blizzard.  :)

Deck View

Kate climbing the mountain of snow around the side of the house

Mike shoveling us out

The crazy kids – who wants to play outside when it’s zero out, not me!

Creighton

It’s hard to believe Creighton is just a few days shy of 6 months already!  He loves to sit in our kid sized recliner chair.  I think it’s because he can keep an eye on Kate and Lincoln better, but the other day he even went to sleep in one.


It’s starting to appear that he may crawl earlier rather than later.  I’m not sure I’m ready for that. :)

Mike and Creighton have been fighting bad colds.  One day they fell asleep on the couch together.

Don’t let that smile fool you, this boy has been a handful lately, hopefully he will be well and not teething again soon.  His shirt says, “That’s it I’m calling Grandma.”

In an effort to try to help the kids burn off some energy, I have started making them exercise everyday.  Here they are doing jumping jacks and Creighton was giggling hysterically, but then you’ll find that it doesn’t take much to make him giggle. Don’t mind the towel on the floor, we had to defrost our freezer.