Update on Jack!!

Jack sleeping in his new big boy bed with new bedding!! He loves it!

Just a quick update on Jack's potty training.....he is doing fabulous!! He is totally pee-trained (still working on the #2 but I'll take what I can get at this point!) He hasn't had an accident since the first couple of days that we started potty training. He now tells us whenever he has to go and has been doing so great---definitely something I am very thankful for! What a relief! And he is doing great in his new big boy bed that we got him last week. He was in a full size bed but that was taking up too much space in his room so we bought a twin bed and he loves it---I bought some super cute dinosaur bedding and now all we need to do is paint and it will be an all-boy room!! Love that boy so much :)
Oh and one more thing......Jack doesn't have binkies anymore!!! He was completely "addicted" to his binkies and I was nowhere near ready to give them up because I thought it was going to be pure torture for days...well we ended up not being able to find it before bed about  a week ago and what do you know....he hasn't had it since!!! It was absolutely painless----who would have known!! Totally surprised me because he was so attached to that binky (maybe it was me who was more attached :) So it was a very easy transition and he has only asked about them a couple of times and we say that the binkies are lost and he doesn't say another word--no tears or anything! Thank you Lord!!!! So he has gone from a kid who was sleeping in a crib, wearing diapers and still using binkies to a big kid in a matter of weeks--makes me so sad to be honest but he will always be my baby :)

Thanksgiving Weekend

Decorating turkey cookies to give to teachers for Thanksgiving!

The finished product!

With the Thanksgiving turkey!

Eating the Thanksgiving feast!

Thanksgiving 2011

Old Market Carriage ride

Drinking hot chocolate after the carriage ride!

I can't believe Thanksgiving has come and gone and we are already full swing into the Christmas season. Where did the month of Nov go??? We had a great Thanksgiving! This year we decided to host at our house because my parents have no one else in Omaha and it is just easier to have my parents and Dave's family all together rather than go to different houses that day---Lord knows I don't need one Thanksgiving dinner let alone two! It went really well and we provided the turkey and stuffing and everyone brought the other things. We had my parents, Dave's mom, Julie, Mike, Trevor and Tyler, Jami, Kevin and Tommy and Dave and I and the kids---not a huge group but it was a nice size! We did our "Gratitude Jar" again this year and Ellie loved pulling out all the slips of paper which we had written things that we are thankful for. Here are some of the things that I am most grateful for:
--my faith in God--without it I would literally not survive--I have learned over the years to fully trust in Him and I will be able to get through anything
--my husband--we have been through many ups and downs and sometimes the downs were really bad but because of our commitment and mutual respect for eachother we have made it through and are stronger than we have ever been--he is my rock and I am so incredibly blessed to call him my husband
--my little Ellie--I can't even describe how badly I wanted a daughter and God blessed me with a very special one---she is truly unique and I love her so much I can barely put it into words
--my little Jack--I wasn't sure what on earth I was going to do with a boy but God knew what he was doing when he blessed our family with Jack--he truly makes us smile and laugh each and every day and I am so in love with him it is indescribable--the mother-son bond is amazing!!
--Dave's work which allows me to stay home with the kids--hardest job in the world but I wouldn't trade it for anything and I appreciate how hard Dave works so that I can do what I do
--great family and friends--my kids are so lucky because they get to grow up with their grandparents in the same city---my friends are amazing and I am one blessed girl!
There are many other blessings in my life but when I think of all of them those are the ones that I think of first and foremost! After our Thanksgiving dinner Dave and I took the kids downtown to see the lights. It was a gorgeous night and the weather was perfect. The last couple of years that we have gone downtown Ellie has asked about taking a carriage ride. This year we decided to surprise her with one. So we stood in line for about an hour and then took a carriage ride through the Old Market and Gene Leahy Mall to see the lights---the wait was well worth it! The kids loved it and I can definitely see making it a yearly tradition.. The lights were gorgeous and it was just a great time! We stopped for hot chocolate afterwards and then headed home to get the kids to bed!!
Friday Dave and I headed to the NU/IA game and the kids stayed with my mom. Her and Dave's mom took the kids to see the Muppets movie which I think they liked. Then Fri night we all went to a benefit for Dave's friend Brian who passed away over the summer. It was great to see all of Brian's family and friends. They are raising money to donate to different causes that Brian was passionate about. He was such an amazing guy and is missed by many many people as indicated by the turnout on Fri night! Saturday we made our yearly trek out to Frosty Pine's Christmas tree farm to get our tree. This is the 3rd yr that we have done this and it's something I love (Dave doesn't seem to share my love of this activity but he goes along fairly willingly!!) They didn't have a great selection this year but we found one and are looking forward to decorating it very soon! I'm so excited for the next 4 weeks and sharing the season with my family!

She did it!!!

We have been working on this since the beginning of the year...........Ellie finally made it to the 100's club for addition in her class!!! She got 100 addition problems right in 5 min. This has been a huge challenge for Ellie but she has practiced almost every night and she finally accomplished it today! We are SOOOOO proud of her!! She is sooooo happy! I love when my kids recognize their accomplishments---greatest feeling in the world! I've got a sorority alumni dinner tonight but Dave is taking her Jack to China Buffet to celebrate (I'm not a fan of China Buffet so I'm sad to miss the celebration but not sad to miss the food :) Way to go Ellie!!!!

Catch Up

I haven't posted for a bit so this is just going to be a big catch up of what we've been up to last couple of weeks! Last Friday was Veteran's Day so Ellie's Brownie troop got to participate in a flag ceremony at their school that morning. It was super neat to see the entire school and especially all the scouts with their uniforms on stand outside and raise the the flag after saying the Pledge of Allegiance. It was very neat to see! Dave went on his annual deer hunting trip last weekend so the kids and I were on our own from Friday to Sunday. Friday night I had book club at my house so Ellie rented "Soul Surfer" and watched that and Jack was asleep before anyone even arrived--bless his little heart! Fri night I decided that I was DONE with diapers for  Jack so I made an "executive" decision to really do hard-core potty training (we've been trying on and off for over 6 mo's with absolutely NO luck!!). So I had the diaper fairy come and take all of Jack's diapers and give them to the "babies" while he was sleeping. So when he woke up the diapers were gone and the diaper fairy had left a Buzz Lightyear costume (Jack is really into Buzz right now).  He was super excited until he realized he had to potty on the big potty :) Let's just say it's been quite an experience this week. We are making a tad bit of progress because he will actually sit on the potty for a little bit as opposed to before when he wouldn't even sit on it! He will pee eventually but we really have to "force" him to sit there and the peeing usually comes amongst screams and cries. Normally I would give up and say we'll try again it's not working but we can't this time!!! He is fully capable of doing this---we are just in a huge power struggle right now and I am going to win :) So this is what we are going to have to do for a while---he is having accidents occasionally but I can deal with that. He usually saves his "poop" for the morning when he still has his nighttime diaper on (the diaper fairy left diapers for nighttime!) This has been super frustrating but we WILL get there and I know this will all be a distant memory soon enough :) So needless to stay we tried to stick close to home over the weekend!! Ellie had a friend over and I watched the Penn State vs NU game on TV (sad with all the events surrounding the game) But we won so that was good!!! Dave got home Sunday night and we were glad to have him back (with no deer--even better :) Monday was a nice day so after school I took Jack to the zoo and we walked around---always nice to do in the middle of Nov. The zoo is totally under construction and will be so nice when they are all done--we are so lucky to live in a city with such a great zoo! Today (Thurs) Jack had his Winter Music program at school--it was the first one he has done because he didn't start school until mid-Feb last year so he missed it. It was so adorable to see his little class on stage. I was video taping so I didn't get good pics of the actual show--my mom took a few but Jack is really far away :( His class sang a Snowflake song and they wore snowflake hats---so darn cute!!! Jack was really cute and when he found me he was super smiley and was waving--love him so much!! We are looking forward to a date night tomorrow night--Dave's mom is going to keep the kids overnight at her house for us and they are going to eat a Columbian dinner with the woman who is staying at her house from Columbia (Leydi). Ellie loves Leydi and is so excited! We are also looking forward to having Thanksgiving at our house next week---it's only the 2nd time we have done this and the first time was before we had kids. It will be fun :) Love, love, love Thanksgiving!!!

Husker Game with Ellie and 1st Reconciliation

Reception after 1st Reconciliation at St Leo's

Standing next to my senior year composite picture!!

Saturday began with a special sacrament for Ellie---she made her 1st Reconcilation at St Leo's. Even though we aren't actively raising our kids Catholic I was raised such a devout Catholic that because they are both baptized Catholic I think it's important that they take part in the Catholic sacraments and go to CCD (my kids have got to be the most spiritual kids on earth--between Sunday School, Small group and CCD they are getting it all :). So the 1st sacrament was 1st Reconciliation. Ellie was nervous but we had talked about what she could say to the Priest so she was well-prepared! We talked about  how God forgives all of our sins (even if we don't go to Confession) and that asking for forgiveness from God is essential in living a faith-filled life. After the sacrament they had a little reception at the church. A big day for my little girl who is growing up too fast! First Communion will be next and she is super excited about that because she gets to wear a pretty dress :)
Then Ellie and I went to her 1st Husker game.  She has been to the Spring game in the past but not an actual game so this was a 1st for her. We had decided earlier in the season that Dave would take Jack to a game that Ellie and I couldn't go to and then I would take Ellie to a game. Fun father/son and mother/daughter bonding time!! After 1st Reconciliation we drove to Lincoln and had a ball. I took her to my sorority house where I lived for 3 yrs in college. We were able to go in and walk around. She said she felt like she was in a mansion! I showed her some of the rooms I had lived in, where we ate and where we studied,etc. She was very  impressed and now says she is definitely going to college at UNL so she can live in that house! That would be fine with me :) Then we walked to the stadium--it was a really nice day--a little windy but not too bad. Ellie loved the game (it didn't hurt that she had a huge bag of skittles, popcorn, pop and a few other candy items!) She was cheering louder than most in the stands which wasn't hard because Nebraska lost and people weren't that into the game :( She was so cute. She was really getting into it! I kept asking her if she wanted to leave and she wanted to stay to the bitter end. She really liked the couple that sits behind us and ended up sitting next to them for a lot of the game. It was a good time and I was happy to spend the day with my little cheerleader! Pics to come!!!

Halloween

Trick or treating with our neighbors--Tanner, Quinton, Colton, Jack, Trevor, Ellie and Emma

I've gotten a little behind this week as I was down with the stomach flu for a couple of days :( Made it through Halloween and then got sick the next night and was pretty much out for a couple of days. No fun! Anyway, we had a great Halloween this year. The weather was absolutely PERFECT and the kids had a blast! It started over the weekend. Dave and I went to the NU vs Michigan State game on Sat. Great game and we won which was even better! Sunday we went to Mike and Julie's for a little family Halloween party because our cousin Kylie was in town. The kids dressed up in their costumes, played a few games and had a few snacks. Sunday night we had to carve our pumpkins and make caramel apples for Jack's teachers. Monday the kids both had their parties/parade at school. Jack's was in the morning and it was his 1st school Halloween party. He dressed up as Spiderman and I wasn't sure how he would do with the costume because he hadn't been very interested in wearing it for long periods of time. We got it on him at school and he wanted to immediately take it off but somehow I got him to leave it on to do the parade through the school. He took it off as soon as we got back to the classroom! They played a few games in their class and then did a couple of songs for the parents. My mom went with me so it was great that she got to be there. Jack loves having us in his classroom. After Jack's we went to Ellie's. This was the 1st year that I have taken Jack with me to her party. It went ok. I had to help with a game in her class and he wasn't super cooperative but it went fine and we survived. He loved watching her whole school parade outside. Ellie was a mystical genie (not my 1st choice but I let her choose!). That night we made mummy dogs for dinner (2nd year we've done that--a new tradition!) and ghosts( strawberries and white chocolate). We had dinner and then got the circle gang together for trick or treating. We've gone trick or treating with the neighbors for I think the past 6 yrs and it's always fun. This was the 1st year that Jack really seemed to understand the concept and hung with the kids for the entire time! He loved going up to doors and saying "Trick or Treat" and was always very thankful. Ellie of course ran ahead with Emma most of the night and had to be reminded to stay with us  :) The kids got way too much candy and were ready to come home when we were done! We counted candy and called it a night! Such a fun night with beautiful weather!!! Love these times with our kiddos! I can't believe we are heading into the holiday season---doesn't seem possible but here it comes!