Big Boy Bed

I'm a little behind getting some posts done.  Sawyer moved into a big boy bed 6 weeks ago on February 23.  He dictated the move really...asking to move into a big boy bed and head-diving out of his crib when he wanted out.  So, out of fear of him hurting himself and wanting him to experience this exciting new step in his life...we took down the crib.  I must admit it was a little sad/odd taking down the crib.  It's the first time it's ever been down.  Every other time a new baby has forced the child's move into a big bed (Lainey at 19 months and Sophie at 23 months).  But, I got over it quickly when I saw the elation and pride on Sawyer's face.  He didn't have one night of crying being in the bed...he just jumped right in and hasn't stopped talking about it since. 

Feb. 23 - Ready for bed...jumped right in!

1st night snuggled into new big boy bed...and yes, I am aware he is on pink sheets.  

I wasn't prepared for the move that night.  :)

There is nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby/child.  Precious.

The look of 2-year-old PRIDE!

Golden Opportunity

On March 9, Lainey was privledged to experience a once in a lifetime opportunity at school.  (And, Sophie, Sawyer and I were lucky enough to get to join her!!)  Curt Tomasevicz, the Nebraska native and Olympic Men's Bobsledding Team gold medalist visited Lainey's school to talk of his experience and talk about following one's dream, working hard, setting goals, and doing well in school.  It was really a neat day, and we were very fortunate to be a part of the festivities.

Lainey listening to Curt.

Showing everyone what kind of helmet he wore and what's so special about it.

The kids all did a great job of listening.

And, there's the medal!  What an accomplishment!  There's quite a lot of hard work that goes into earning one of those!  :)

Sweet Special 6 Year Old!

I don't think there is much better than celebrating a child.  I can hardly believe my Lainey Bug turned 6 years old on March 11.  How is it that saying "6" seems SO much older than saying "5"?  And, how is it that when she jumped off the bus the afternoon of her birthday she looked like such a beautiful big girl when in the morning she ran off to the bus...just a little bit younger?  We're SO very proud of our 6-year-old.  I can't even begin to list the things I love, no LOVE, about that girl!  So, I'll just let you know that from her 5th birthday to her 6th, she is now: reading, adding, counting to 100, counting by 5's and 10's, learning to solve problems with others outside of her family, spending 5 full days in a row away from mom (by the way, spending 5 full days away from her is an accomplishment for me too since my last bday) :) , continuing to grow and develop her loving, generous, teaching, giving spirit that she has always had.  I could go on and on, so let me share some pictures of our precious first-born, longed-for, dreamed of...GIFT!

Happy, Happy the Happiest of Birthdays my amazing girl!

I LOVE you!

May your imagination continue to flourish and your spirit shine through you always!

I am SO glad God blessed us with YOU!

Lainey eating our traditional star birthday pancakes for breakfast...getting her first round of "Happy Birthday" on the "You are special" plate we got for our wedding.

Running through the traditional door streamers...a favorite for all!  :)

We ate at Hu-Hot Mongolian Grill...Lainey's choice...her favorite restaraunt.  Uncle Scott, Grandpa Monte and Grammy came up to celebrate on Thursday!

Lainey doing well with the chopsticks.

Sophie enjoying getting to "eat inside" at a restaraunt.  :)

Even Sawyer tried his hand at chopsticks.

After Hu-Hot Lainey was surprised with getting to pick out a new (bigger) bike!

Grandpa Monte and Grammy Ruth

She LOVED all of the phone calls and messages throughout the day!  Thank you!

Singing 'Happy Birthday' to our dear Lainey

Grandpa Marv and Grandma Ellen came up Friday night to celebrate.

Lainey had her birthday party Saturday afternoon and invited the girls from her class and a little friend across the street.  She had a cake decorating party...here the girls are decorating their aprons with fabric markers.

The finished products...now they are ready to be cake decorating divas...and boy, were they ever!  :)

We had 8 different tubes of frosting each with a different decorators tip and 4 different colors of frosting.  I can't tell you how many colors of sprinkles were on the table along with M&Ms. 

The finished creations.  (One girl even commented they could so be professional cake decorators and deliverers...and she was quite serious.)  :)

     Lainey with her friend, Jocelyn.  I'm certain the parents were excited they didn't need to think about dessert that night.  :)

Lainey and her cake.

What a day!  What a FUN party!  (THANK YOU, Mom, for all your help!)  The girls had a blast.  It was a couple hours of giggles and squeals.  What more could a mom ask for?   

Centers

It has been a long winter around here.  The kids (and I) are yearning to get outside!  Lainey didn't have school on Monday (15th), and we HAD to do something different!  :)  Lainey loves doing centers at school, so we set some up here at home.  It worked like a charm!  We had 8 centers, and the kids spent 10-12 minutes in each center.  The kids did SO well...even Sawyer.  They had to stay in their center and work independently...and clean up their center when the timer beeped to switch.  I was so proud of them!  The best part is that they were so excited about it!  We will definitely do it again on our next day off or snow day (hope we don't have one of those again...but I'm not going to count it out quite yet).  :) 

Lainey in the Reading Center

Sawyer making his candy necklace...next time around was stringing beads center

Sophie in Coloring Center

This was originally supposed to be the Wii Center but after not being able to get the Wii to work we switched it to the Lego Center...and I'm glad we did!

The Puzzle Center

Dress-Up/House Center...we also had Baby Center as another one the kids liked too

Playdough Center

What a FUN day...with very little fighting and lots of creativity!  Ahhhh....

Projects

Lainey has been studying penguins at school and needed to do a penguin project for class. It could be anything she wanted. I remembered when I was little making a paper mache penguin out of a lightbulb. So, I googled it and showed it to Lainey, and she was quite excited about the idea. Plus, it was really something that she could completely do herself...with just some guidance. And, what a fantastic job she did! Her penguin looks amazing!


Starting the paper mache on the lightbulb. She had to do 2 layers...letting the first dry overnight. It was a little hard to be patient. :) 


Next Lainey painted the paper mached lightbulb all white. 

Then she painted it black, leaving the white belly showing.  She glued on googly eyes and cut orange craft foam and glued that on for the feet and beak.  She was proud of her project...and so were we!

Sophie wanted to work on her project too...decorating her Valentine's Day box for her party at preschool.

Not to be left out, Sawyer needed a project too...so he played with playdough. :)

Giving it a Go

Sawyer has been really good about going on the potty for quite some time now, so I thought I would try introducing some potty training with real big boy undies. He picked Elmo at the store..and LOVES them! He's doing pretty well. We'll see how it continues. (Cross your fingers.) But...aren't these teeny undies just about the cutest on him? :)

Wonderful Gift

On Wednesday afternoon one of my best friends, Tracey, flew in from Denver. It was a gift to us from our husbands for Christmas. But, just getting to spend quality time together wasn't the only gift. Thursday night, we did a little shopping then went to the Tim McGraw concert! He was fantastic!! And, Lady Antebellum opened...not bad either! :) We followed the concert with a very late night dinner. Of course, we managed to fit in LOTS of talking and laughing while she was here too. Dropping her off at the airport Friday afternoon was tough as it went VERY quickly, but I am just so thankful for the time we had together. It was a most precious gift! Thank you, Matt and Nino!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy ♥ Day from our precious 3 Lovebugs!

haircuts

FINALLY all of the kids have had much-needed haircuts.

But, my little guy, more than anyone just LOVES getting his haircut...by Mr. Jimmy. When I told Sawyer he was getting shaggy, he immediately started talking about his buddy, "Jimmy"....daily, actually multiple times a day...often as soon as he would wake up. I'm not sure if it's because he loves getting his haircut or because he loves the fact that he gets to eat as many dum-dum suckers as he wants while he's there. :) So, following "Jimmy" is "lots of suckers" :) He sits so well, and his haircut immediately changes him from my toddler to my little man. And, he continues to talk about Mr. Jimmy, his haircut, and lots of suckers for days following. :)

All of my kiddos look so clean-cut and fresh. I almost love getting their haircut as much as I love getting mine. Almost. :)






(Sawyer: 2 years, 4 months)

Star of the Week

Lainey was Star of the Week last week...so special for her! She got to bring several special pictures for the teacher to put up on her bulletin board and colored that cute little representation of herself. She also got to bring her favorite toy, favorite book, and favorite stuffed animal to sit with all day (Mr. Bear, of course). On the last day she shared a sheet she wrote of some of her favorites and the kids in her class all made a book for her.

As a special surprise, the kids and I showed up Friday to have lunch with Lainey. (You'll notice Lainey & lots of kids wearing hats. It was "Hats for Haiti" day. The students had the option to pay $2 to wear a hat for the day, to help out the victims of the Haiti earthquake.)

In Kindergarten being Star of the Week is a great big deal, and Lainey has been looking forward to this since school started. But, Lainey is our STAR every week!

Fun Family Night!

We had a very fun family night at Lainey's school last Friday. The school showed 'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs' and invited all families to come in their Pj's and slippers and bring blankets and pillows to get nice and comfy on the gym floor.

Our kiddos could hardly wait to get into their Pj's and slippers, grab their PillowPets from Santa and their loveys and GET.TO.THE.SCHOOL!!! :) It was such fun for Lainey to see some of her friends too (in their Pj's!).

I appreciate that her school does family events once a month. It gives us a chance to meet other parents/families at the school and to do something extra-special (for free!) together.

New Blessing!

Welcome to our precious niece (daughter of Matt's sister, Wendi, and her husband, Mike...and little sister to Aldyn)

Emerson 'Emme' Elle Hadley

Feb. 1

9 lbs. 15 oz. (wow!)

23"

She has the most adorable chubby cheeks and thighs...and beautiful downy black hair!


The kids and I made a quick up and back trip to the hospital in Kearney on Tuesday. It was a fun time!

Lainey is such a proud big cousin...she has such a tender heart towards little ones!

Sophie was SO excited to learn the news of Baby Emme's arrival!

Sophie and Sawyer with Aunt Wendi. Sawyer was just getting over a cold, so we kept him away as much as we could from little Emme.

Congratulations, Hadley's!

Tooth Fairy!

The Tooth Fairy visited Lainey last night! She was SO excited to lose her first tooth! She had wiggled until it was twisted sideways. With a little coaxing, I convinced her to take a napkin and gently try and twist it back until it was upright...and out it came! :) The Tooth Fairy left 5 shiny quarters and glitter dust where she landed on the pillow, bed, night stand and had fluttered along the carpet. We wish we could have seen her! How fun! :)