Katie's Bowling

Katie had her Special Olympics local bowling competition this weekend. She bowled a total of 9 games and her scores were: 84, 90, 112, 85, 85, 78, 82, 120, and 87! Go Katie. This is the first year that Katie has bowled over 100 and she is very excited about it. Katie has bowled over 100 quite a few other times this season as well. We may need to actually get her a heavier ball next year...Katie got two 1st place awards and one 2nd place award. The picture is of Katie and her team mates...she is such a little poser!



p.s. Lucas spent most of the day in dry underwear! Go Lucas!

So, below is a video of the two littles one taking a bath. Too cute! They played so well together...Alana idolizes her big brother, but Lucas doesn't always return the admiration. He's mostly concerned with being first...First to take a bite, first to get into the van, first down the stairs, first, first, first! So this morning during breakfast I told him "it doesn't work that way" and he repeated that phrase over and over again. Hmmm.
So Lucas has started to train us on a new routine of his while dropping him off at daycare. James decided to drop off Lucas, then drop off Alana on the other side, then come back and put all of Lucas's stuff (now that it's winter...) into his cubby. When he entered Lucas's side of the building, Lucas was at the top of the stairs crying his head off with huge tears running down his face. When he saw Daddy, he said "You didn't scoot me!". Turns out that not only do we have to give him #1) his oatmeal #2) kisses #3) hugs (big hugs) and #4) noses, but also #5 scoot him on his little stool towards the table, even if it is little just a nudge! He really is so cute and pityful at the same time!


Here are some pics of the week. Cute one of Lucas, Alana, and the Bears. This was very cute because Lucas went to give Alana the little bear many times! He was being very sweet.

Katie is in her Lucy costume that I made her this year. Had NO pattern and it turned out really good! All we need to get now is blue socks and she'll be set to go! They are having dress-up day at the high school on Wednesday and then there are a couple of Halloween parties she'll get to go to on Halloween. She is VERY excited...has always LOVED halloween! Katie also performed her first high school play last night, which was called "Just Another High School Play". She has thoroughly enjoyed drama club this year and loves acting (of course!). James taped it, so it will be on the next family DVD we send out...hopefully around Christmas time.




















This is a regular look for Lucas in the mornings. He loves this blanket I gave him. It was a blanket made by my mentor and the classes last year for me. He likes to wrap himself in it, sit in the rocking chair and drink his gatorade.




















This morning Alana got on the chair and laid back on Eliza and her bear. It was very cute! And isn't she cute in her Halloween outfit that Great Grandma bought her? She looks SO good in bold colors. Love it!

Isn't she beautiful?!?!

We just got Katie's hair cut yesterday and her pics taken today. She went from looking like a kid to looking like a beautiful teenager in minutes! What beautiful curls she has...I'm jealous! Anyway, I took her pic out our back door after we got back today while it was snowing. The snow was awesome today...we got about 4 inches and Lucas and Alana trudged around in the yard for awhile. Alana actually liked it today and didn't cry a bit! Lucas loved it, of course.

Snow!

Well, it snowed for the first time on Sept.28. I think it's here to stay. Since it was on the weekend, we took advantage of the first snow and played around in it making snow angels and shaking the snow off the trees down on us. Alana did not like her snowgear very much, though.



Lucas and I made the yarn octopus that Lucas is holding in the picture. I got the idea from my sister-in-law Brianna and Lucas really enjoyed helping me make it!

Lucas is now in full potty-training mode. He didn't do too well tonight. And he picked tonight to poop in his bath...first time ever! He had a horrible day at daycare and I guess he was feeling obstinant the rest of the evening, eh? Needless to say, he only went to the bathroom in his pottychair once tonight and rebelled all other attempts. Normal? We have been using monster trucks as an incentive for his potty-training and so far it works fairly well (except for tonight, of course...). The trucks are well-made and actually last for a toy and Lucas is learning such formidable names such as "Grave Digger" and "Scarlet Bandit". I have been almost fully introduced into the world of monster trucks, downloading u-tube videos of them for Lucas to watch during his spare time. The only thing I think he'd like better is for the trucks we buy him to be bigger and to be able to actually see these things in person! I must say we are raising our son to be a "real man"!


Alana enjoys whatever Lucas is playing with...she loves her monster trucks as well. She has started to really show some personality and her likes and dislikes. She will now push something away if she doesn't want it. She is also saying many different words, although most of them aren't really clear yet.

Katie's play is coming up later this month - "It's just another high school play". And she is doing awesome at bowling! She's gotten above 100 points in seven games so far and is very proud of herself. I think she's starting to actually get an ego on her that we have to deflate every once in awhile. As you can see from the picture, Katie is loves Mickey Mouse! She can't stop thinking about Disney World!

Alana's 1st B-day!

Alana is a year old already! She is such a fun little girl to have around. She absolutely loves her big brother, although he may have different feelings about having a little sister...The day was perfect to celebrate her birthday! The leaves were in full color, the sky was clear and we had just a few close friends celebrate her special day with us. I made cupcakes that anyone with one of the most common 8 food allergies could eat and they actually tasted great! We've also found chocolate chips Lucas can have as well, so I put some of those in the cupcakes also. Alana didn't really care for the cake or frosting too much. Guess we should have trained her up right before the party, eh?

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Baby Girl Birthday Invite

Make a Smilebox greeting

The Summer Begins!

We got one and only one chance to make a snowman this winter. It occured in the middle of April! So I took the evening off of school work (I was NOT going to miss this chance!), picked up Lucas from daycare and we made a snowman! It was fun.

The summer if officially here and I have officially completed my teacher certification program! It was the hardest year of my life...James was amazing and basically took care of the house and the kids on his own this spring. A huge THANK YOU goes out to my sister, Kerri, for coming up and giving us 3 weeks of her life to help us out. I felt so much better that my hubby would not go completely insane with Katie, a toddler and a baby to take care of by himself for at least those few weeks. We seem to enjoy the challenges!?!

It's pretty sweet that I have the whole summer off! We've got our neice coming in for 2 weeks in June - Liz. Then I'll be taking Lucas and Alana down to Oregon for 3 1/2 weeks to visit the parents and my grandma and extended family in Idaho. We will be gone for a week to the coast, so I am very excited about that! I keep talking to Lucas about it and he seems to want to go. Then 4 days after we return, James' parents are coming in for 3 weeks! Busy summer! But this is the first summer I won't be busy with work, but with more fun things.

Katie is staying up here this summer and will be working half days in June as part of a work program. She'll even earn money, so we'll be able to teach her about saving, etc, for long-term investments and short-term goals. We hope she likes it. She is also turning 15 this Saturday! Can you believe it?

Lucas is definitely a two-year old. We took him a few cookies into school today (this is his last week before he gets to stay home with me!) and he was apparently under the impression that he would get the eat them when he got there. I initially said no (before the 1st melt-down), then said he could have a small one (he took out the biggest one), then since he would not put the big one back I said he could have half of the big one and I proceded to break the cookie in half. #1 lesson: NEVER break a cookie in half. #2 lesson: NEVER let your toddler know you are taking cookies to school for him to eat later. #3 lesson: I need to learn to master the art of saying no and sticking with it (But my excuse is that he was in a mood...). Lucas still has his allergies...but I finally made a chocolate cake that was really good (...from a mix in the non-wheat section). We are still hoping he grows out of some of them...Oh, he LOVES tractors (anything big) and loves to jump off pretty much anything (pretty scary for the parents!).

Alana is as sweet as can be. She's already walking holding onto our hands and wants to really be running around with Lucas all over the place. Lucas makes her laugh all the time and sometimes he doesn't see what is so funny and says to Alana "No, Alana, it's not funny." Alana has been pretty needy lately...we think she is getting her eye teeth in. Other than that she is a happy girl! One oddity to note...Alana does not like grass. She cried the first time we put her on it. If we put her on a blanket on the grass she's ok with it, but she will not crawl off the blanket into the grass...even if I'm out there and she wants to come to me. If she's going to be in this family, she's going to have to get over this daintiness! It won't exactly work when we start going camping!

James will finish up his Bachelor's this summer! Yeah! He is so excited and ready to get it over with. He's also really looking forward to getting out of the military. Basically a little over a year left! Then he'll got through the teacher certification program as well. I'm still waiting for jobs to open up in the school district for either math or chemistry. I'm hoping to teach math...I think I would be better at that them chem. Until next time...