The White Stuff

For the 2nd time this winter, we've had snow!!

 Katherine and the Big Bumpy Blue Truck.

She loves the truck as much as Zach does.

Headed to check out some animal tracks in the snow.

 Archie didn't seem to mind the snow!

 And he even managed to the tree the kitten!

 Where's Archie?!?!

 K is obsessed with snow angels!

We're shocked to have been lucky enough to have so much snow this year!

Hi

It's been a little while.  I'm picking back up with the present.  

Maybe I'll get around to posting from the past year at some point.

We were outside this evening before the dinner, homework, bath rush began and Jackson picked up the boomerang.  Zach bought a couple for Katherine a few months ago, and Jackson is pretty dang good!

 Of course, the camera is out and he can't stay serious.

 Jackson and Katherine still aren't fans of the camera and it was hard to get too many good ones today.  I can't be gone from the blog for so long and not have a picture of Katherine also, so here is one just before Christmas and when it was actually cold outside.

Hopefully we'll be back within the next week!

Our Big Girl

The tooth fairy is stopping by Katherine's room tonight for the first time!!

Her tooth has been loose for a while now, and just like Jackson's did, the permanent tooth has started poking through behind her baby teeth.  Thankfully we held out and she didn't have to have hers pulled by the dentist like her "big brudder".  She was eating supper tonight and must have bitten down on it.  She came to us crying that her tooth was hurting after she "bit it" and it was obvious the tooth was about to come out.  I don't even think she felt it when Zach pulled it!  She was scared about it coming out, but as soon as she saw it out, that fear turned to excitement over the tooth fairy!  When I was tucking her in tonight, she told me she was going to stay awake all night so she could see the tooth fairy!

Her tooth has been pretty loose all week, so on Tuesday morning I snapped one last picture of her with all of her baby teeth in case it came out at school.  It's a tad bittersweet!

40

 This cute and mischievous little boy celebrated the big 4-0 today!!

Fast forward a few decades and a lifetime of memories . . .

our babies were e-x-c-i-t-e-d this evening about Daddy's birthday!

The kids and I wanted to put 40 candles on the cake, but the birthday boy won out and only had to blow out two.  I guess it was for the best--that's an ice cream cake and by the time we would have managed to push 40 candles into solid rock and then light them all, the cake would have been a puddle.

Happy 40th Birthday, Zach!!

Here's to a new decade of fun moments and new memories!!

We Love You!

Soccer and Derby

We had a day of firsts today!  Katherine had her first soccer game and Jackson competed in his first Pinewood Derby with Cub Scouts.

This is Katherine's first time to play on an organized team.  She played for a few minutes and wasn't really going after the ball--I think she was a little overwhelmed.  We've learned she responds well with a little motivation (some people may say bribery), so when she had a break, I told her if she kicked the ball a lot I would buy her a surprise!  She went back out and went after the ball for awhile!  She did great for her first game!

 

After lunch we ended up at Jackson's Pinewood Derby race!  We saw some of the car races and Jackson's car didn't place in the top to move on to the final round.  Once all of the rounds were completed, awards were handed out.  All of the sudden I look over and see Jackson walking onto the stage and started to call for him to come back.  Turns out, they had called his name--he won for coolest car!!

 Apparently if you win that award, your car is automatically entered into the final round!  After not making into the finals based on time, he ended up placing fifth overall in time!

 If you ask Jackson, he says he won the whole thing!

Trick or Treat!

Well, another Halloween is in the books!  Jackson has discovered the show Storm Troopers and Katherine is still obsessed with horses!

I looked online for horse costumes for Katherine and couldn't find anything cute.  And then, Pinterest happened.  There was a cute homemade horse costume a kid was pictured in and it had a link to instructions.  We need instructions for a box horse costume since we're not very creative on our own.  The instructions were good until the end when they failed to mention the front would be top heavy once your child put the costume on.  After spending an hour or two, a couple of belts, and almost a roll of packing tape later, Zach finally came up with moving the reins and thankfully we had a horse costume.  (Trust me, I really just summarized all of our attempts on finding a solution!)  And just in time for walking outside for trick-or-treating!

She did look cute! 

 Katherine and I worked a couple of different weekends on putting her horse together!  She picked out the colors and all of the materials!

 Brenda and Grandpa decided the day before to drive over and we kept it a surprise for the kids!

Our sweet Jackson!

Until next year, we're still getting sugar highs around here!

Mud

Jackson and Katherine were a bit hyper this weekend, and Katherine was asking to go to a park, so we went to the lake playground.

 They finally got the go ahead to go down to the lake, and it didn't take long before they were both filthy.

We came back home, cleaned up, had some lunch, and Jackson had to work on his first school project of the year. 

 Happy he's finished with his first "book report"!

 This evening, Jackson, Katherine, and I went to the lake to shoot his slingshot.  Katherine and I gathered rocks at the house and headed down.  I didn't realize how low the lake was.  Zach came down a few minutes later and I asked if he would clear out some of the logs while the water is down.  He was sweet and went out there only to sink down to his knees.  It didn't take the other two long to want to join in.

 Uh oh!  Stuck!

 Muddy trio!!

Back in the Swing of Things

Katherine is in KINDERGARTEN!!

Although neither one were ready to start back, Katherine has been excited about getting to go to school with Jackson.  We're excited we only have to drop off or pick up at one place!

Jackson is in 2nd grade and was dreading starting back, but when I picked him up today, he was happy and said he had a pretty good day!

The first words out of Katherine's mouth when she climbed in the car: "Mrs. Bonner is MEAN!!"  Thankfully that's not her teacher, but it was Jackson's teacher last year.  The only thing I could get out of her on why she didn't like her was that she gives lots of tests!  I guess we'll try to stay away from her next year!!

 This will be Jackson's first year to sit in a desk!  He wasn't excited this morning about starting back.

 Katherine's room was pretty chaotic this morning and when I left her, she had an unsure look on her face.  Poor baby, but she was all smiles when I picked her up.

 I had planned to take them to get ice cream or some other treat once school was out, but yesterday on their last day off, Zach stayed home with them and took them to an animal shelter to pick out a cat.  They couldn't decide on the same one, so Zach got 2!  Yep.  I found out about all of this while at work and after the fact!  We went after school today to pick up the kittens.  Meet Sunflower and Socks.

At least those are the names for now.  Katherine was insistent on calling hers Captain Jack Sparrow.  Then she wanted to name hers Socks like Jackson's.  Then Sunny or Sunshine, and now Sunflower.  Jackson is settled; we'll see what tomorrow holds for Sunflower's name!