Our Christmas scene

The indoor Children's Gardens at MSU

The kids would not go near Santa...so they sit in the sleigh alone...

The amazing poinsettia "tree"

Fun Times

Visiting with my San Fran friend Melissa and her daughter Adelle

My Birthday

Dane's Gingerbread house

Picking out our Christmas tree

STL, con't...

The cousins got a night out while the aunts watched all 11 of our kids...in our family if you look at your significant other you get pregnant. I'm not kidding. If my numbers are right only 5 of the 11 babies were planned. That's a lot of "surprises!"

Dane and Glory at the water table, Magic House

The Magic House is by far the biggest and most amazing Children's Museum for young children I have ever experienced.

We Give Thanks

This year, for the first time we went to St. Louis for Thanksgiving. It was a good change of pace...knowing that being Up North would be extremely lonely and sad this year. The car ride was a long 9 hours - one way. The kids did okay, with Glory being the expected pain-in the behind. She slept 1 hour out of nine.

The whole weekend was filled with tons of people...and food...and fun! I am really sad that I took hardly any pictures and not one picture of my two kids together. I plan to do a reenactment to get a picture of them together in their Turkey Day outfits.

Trip to St. Louis, Thanksgiving Weekend

This is about as good as it gets, folks. Family pics don't work out too well for us!

My family celebrated all the November and December Birthdays...this was Dane's turn. He was so excited and cute about it!

Big almost-three-year-old

He loved his cupcake, of course!

(I was freaking out about all the blue frosting he ate)

flashback...halloween!

Better Late than never!?!?

kids update

Big girl Glory, hanging with mom while Dane is at school

The kiddos after bath time.

Dane:

Dane is quite possibly the sweetest boy on earth...yet of course he has his moments. He says the sweetest things to me all the time. "You are my favorite Mommy," "Mom, you are my best friend," "Mommy, you are the best mommy to me." He also says the ugliest things, "You are a mean mom!" "Do you have a baby in your tummy, mom?" Ugh.

He is doing great with school, he loves it. After the children have large group they are dismissed to go to different areas of learning. Dane always chooses art first. I love that.

I just cannot believe how grown up he has gotten. He is recognizing letters and his name. He can spell his name, but only write a "D." He loves singing all the songs he learns at school. I go into Dane's classroom every other Tuesday, I truly enjoy spending that time with him!

Glory:

Glory has personality galore. She is still very aggressive with other children and babies. I'm trying to be patient, I know it is just a phase...but it is frustrating.

Glory is very smart. I realize I am her mom, but I still think she is smart! Her language has exploded! She knows so many words, I could never remember them all. She loves seeing the pumpkins outside; she can say pumpkin and flower. She can sign flower as well. She tells Gatsby, "down!" when he tries to sneak food from her highchair. She gets very excited to see babies and can say, "baby." Other words: please, thank-you, more, out, outside, up, nuk, mine, apple, car, guy, dane, mommy, daddy, grandpa, eye, nose, hi, bye-bye, no, yeah, potty, blanket, dog, baby einstein, barney, blues clues... She will repeat anything you ask her to say. She follows directions very well. She will wipe her nose with a tissue or try to take her clothes off for a bath if you ask her to.

Glory still does not like to be read to and still takes a bottle...

I love being her mom!

MSU Homecoming Parade

After the parade at dinner. Alice, Ivan with Drew on his lap, Dane with Glory on his lap.

MSU Men's Basketball players

MSU Marching Band

Dane and Daddy at the parade. Dane liked his "go state" sticker on his nose.

Glory and Mommy at the parade.

Dane, Glory and Alice.

EL police officer came right up to Dane and gave him a high-five!

Kev said, "that better be as close as Dane ever gets to a police officer." I agree

This is the first time we took the kids to the Homecoming parade...it was cold, but we had a great time! We met up with a friend of mine who serves on the Theta Advisory Board with me and her daughter. After the parade, we met up with another Theta Advisor friend of mine and her two boys.

I really love being in East Lansing and so close to all the fun activities through MSU. I feel so blessed to be living in our new house, to have such a wonderful family, and great friends. I miss my dad so much, though. Everyday it is still a challenge to be happy knowing he is gone.

dane's first day of preschool...

dane's classroom is the same classroom i did my student teaching in 8 years ago

the classic front door pic.

dane and his friend ivan. ivan is a year older, so not in his class but we got to play with him after school.

so far so good! tomorrow will be the true test...today dane went to school for the first time, although the parents came as well. tomorrow he will be there alone. he has been so excited about school and we have talked about it endlessly. when we pulled up he said, "school is scary." i started to get nervous but reassured him that glory and i were going to school with him today...but tomorrow he would be playing with his friends and teachers and glory and i would go home. he seemed okay with the idea, but like i said, tomorrow will be interesting!

our summer vacation...

It's has been almost three months since I last posted. To say it has been a crazy-busy summer is an understatement. Moving to a new house has been the biggest and most taxing event of the summer. We are blessed with great friends and Kevin's family who helped us move...in just five hours. The house is wonderful. It has been a much needed "pick me up" after the stress of my Dad's death and all the ugliness surrounding it. Everything is new and works. Everything is clean and functional. The neighborhood is amazing. It is a young neighborhood for the most part with tons of kids being pushed in strollers, riding bikes, etc. The families are all diverse and that is what I love the most. It is quiet at night and lively during the day. I feel so blessed. I also splurged on my washer and dryer and what a difference it makes! I can do a week's worth of lights or darks in one load - are you kidding me!?!?

Kevin is busy again with school and soccer. He has already had two games which means I am home alone a lot again. This week he had two full days in which he did not see the kids awake. Those are long days for me. Dane and Glory are now a team and they are gruesome. They play, they fight, they scream, they cry, they get into everything. They run away from me, they run into me, etc. Stay at home moms are STILL under appreciated in my mind.

Dane is going to pre-school in September. He will be three in December. He has been on the wait list for the Child Development Laboratories through MSU for a year. I did not want him to go a year ago, I just knew it would take that long to get him in. This is where I did all off my teaching work when I went to MSU. It is a great school with head teachers that are also professors to students at MSU. Then there are student teachers and also students in the classroom.

Dane is still funny and sweet with tons of energy! He comes into bed with Kevin and I at around 5am or later and then when he wakes up again around 7, puts his arms around us and says, "I love you guys." It is too sweet.

Glory keeps up with her brother. She wants to do everything Dane is doing. She wants to eat whatever Dane is eating. She wants to play with whatever Dane is playing with. It makes for a lot of tantrums on both ends... She is saying lots of words! She calls all dogs "Gappy" (Gatsby), says more, up, Mama, Dada, out, and MINE. Can you believe one of her first words is mine? That should give you a good glimpse into her personality. She can hold her own with her brother, but is a downright bully to other kids her size. I'm serious. I think it's just a phase, but it is still embarrassing! She is so small and cute...and looks sweet, but look out! She pushes, scratches, pulls hair, and sometimes bites.

Anyway, I do not have much time, but I wanted to post. Now that we are home and somewhat settled in the new house I hope to be blogging more.

Love to all my Cincinnati family, I miss you!

glory's party

Happy 1st Birthday to Gloria Grace

It does not take much to get Glory excited!

She loves sunglasses

the bib and cupcake...

memorable milestones

Dane:

Dane did not really have a lot of words by 22 months. I remember asking his pediatrician if we should be concerned - as a teacher I was a bit worried by his lack of vocabulary. His doctor disregarded the list I had typed up of words Dane could say and insisted I wait until his two-year-old visit. Turns out the doctor was right! By his Birthday Dane was suddenly saying more words then Kevin and I could count. It was amazing. Now, at almost two-and-a-half, he is speaking in complete sentences and it is more than a riot.

Dane is not allowed to have pop, however, he has tried it a couple of times. When I cracked one open the other evening this is how our conversation went:

Dane: I want pop
Me: Dane you know pop is for Daddy and I. You have milk.
Dane: I want a sip, that's all, no more!

I had to give him a sip...are you kidding me?!?!

Two nights ago Kevin had another late night at a soccer game and I got Dane McDonald's for dinner. Gatsby our dog managed to sneak some of Dane's fries from off the table. For the record when we are mad at Gatsby we use both his first and middle name - just like he were a child - totally weird. We say, "Gatsby George!" After this meal as I was putting Dane to sleep, this was our conversation:

Dane: I love you Mommy (although he cannot pronounce the "L" sound, so it goes more like, "I nove you Mommy."
Me: I love you too!
Dane: I love Daddy, too.
Me: I love Daddy too, and Baby Glory and Gatsby.
Dane: I love Baby Gloria too...Gatsby George ate my fries off the table!

it was funny...

Glory:

Glory just turned one-year-old on the 16th. I cannot believe a year has gone by. She is so sweet and funny. She says, Mama, Dadda, Dane, Thank you, and her favorite "Hi!" She has taken a few steps but is not walking yet.

Her Birthday party was done all in pink and chocolate. She had a chocolate cupcake and DEVOURED it! She wore the sweetest outfit that my Aunt Paula ordered for her (I will post pictures soon) and went nuts over every toy we opened. Her favorite was actually the toy Kevin and I bought her, a pink stroller push toy.

She is still tiny, at her one-year-old check-up Monday she weighed 18 lbs, 1 ounce and was 27 inches long. She still is wearing size 6-12 month clothing.

This is such a formal sounding post, but for baby book purposes I do not want to forget some of these little things!

Thanks to everyone for the Birthday wishes for Glory -

our trip to cincy

This is my son in a nutshell. We took a trip to Cincinnati, just the two of us. He was a GREAT traveler - this is why I brought him and NOT Glory - Anyway, toward the very end of the trip I got some gum out of the console and as I was doing so, pulled a marker out. Dane saw the marker and wanted to color so badly. So I gave him a piece of paper from the glove-box and let him color. I looked back at him once and he was doing great, being quiet. I was so pleased at how well-behaved he was being during such a long trip. When we finally got there, it was dark and as I went to get him out of the car...WHOA! Hee, hee.

My cousins' babies (plus Dane). And to think there are a bunch missing from this picture.

He must be thinking, "Ah, this is the life..."

lil' glory...

looking sweet...

...and then the road rage kicks in

MSU small animal day

Dane loved watching the sheep-herding dog

He loves tractors, can you tell? We waited in line for him to sit on this thing for a half-hour.
He was on the verge of throwing a tantrum the whole time.
He didn't get the whole waiting-in-line thing...


He did pet the lambs, but was scared of the big Mama cows. He did NOT want to milk one!

Easter...

Dane and Glory on Easter

Dane and I coloring eggs the night before Easter

Glory looking cute