Spring Events

Even without me being at school, spring, especially the month of May, was a busy time around our house!  Here's a compilation of a few of our spring time activities:

Spring Dance Recital: 

Both the girls participated in dance again this spring.  As usual, the girls were big fans of their teacher, Ms. Laurie, and I can understand why - she's such a fantastic and positive teacher.  A new addition to dance this session was a recital in an actual auditorium.  You can imagine I was thrilled about this because I had a feeling this would be a much better situation for Olivia (if you remember my last post about her not performing at the recital). I am happy to report that this was truly a positive experience for Olivia - so proud of her.  In fact...so proud of her that I completely forgot to take any picture of Grace.  Well, actually, I didn't take any photos during the performance because my battery went dead, but I did get pictures of Olivia because I stayed through her dress rehersal...wanted to make sure I got to see her in case she ended up freezing at the last second.  Olivia had just a second of concern/hesitiation when we showed up for rehersal, but after that, she was great!  When it came to the actual concert, she just left me to go sit with her group...I couldn't believe it!  I won't go so far as to say she was ultra "into it" during the performance (her shyness was definitely evident), but I thought she did great and she agreed!  :)  And, I'm glad she had a positive experience to carry with her into the future as well!

Olivia's second from the left (pink leotard).

As for Grace - she was majorly into performing!  Are you surprised?  :)  I hope both the girls continue with dance, but if anyone really loves it, I'm guessing it'll be Grace - who knows though; I might be surprised.  Anyways, Grace was a dancing queen up there...totally knew all her moves and took everything quite seriously while managing to flash numerous "I'm so cute" smiles at the audience!  I do have Grace's performance recorded, so I'll show it to you sometime!

Olivia's Spring Concert:

Also in mid-May, Olivia's school had their spring concert.  Grace didn't perform in it yet...next year though she'll be included too.  I love watching Olivia with her St. Ben's friends...both those in her class and others.  I've said it before, but I'd love to be a fly on the wall in her classroom!  The kids did a great job overall, and Olivia was right in the mix - could see her mouth moving and could tell she knew all the actions that went with a few of the songs!  

Olivia and her Mass buddy (and our neighbor) Ava before the concert.

Olivia's in the middle with the bluish colored pants on.

Grady's 1st Prom and 1st Spring Outfit:

So Grady deserves a few sentences of attention too, right?  Here's a picture of him with his "second" cousin Kelsey and her boyfriend on prom - so nice of them to stop by to say hello!  The girls were super shy about it and didn't want a picture, but Grady wasn't intimidated by how pretty Kelsey was looking!  :)  Also, here's a picture of him wearing his first pair of shorts!

Mother's Day

I had a really nice Mother's Day!  I love that the girls totally understand when it's a "special day" and have some extra incentive to show some love, make me all sorts of crafts, and be on good behavior!  :)

The day started out with a 8.85 mile run with my friend Jamie (we're training for a 1/2 marathon on May 31st).  Whew!  Actually, let me back track...the day started out at 5:00 when Grady wet through his jammies and decided he's like some quality one-on-one time with me!  Anyways, after running, we got ourselves ready for brunch at Oneota.  We finished in time to be the first customers at Slumberland where we bought a couch and table/chair set for our now completed (well, almost - just missing trim) sun porch.  It's already been delivered, and I'm super happy with it!  Everyone took naps in the afternoon which was AWESOME, and then we spent the evening relaxing and getting outside a bit.  Overall, a truly perfect day!

Simply put:  I love my family.

 Olivia, Maggie Gavle, Grace, and Elsey Gavle at Oneota

 Grandma and Grandpa Huinker + Huinker grandkids + Maggie

Grace and best buddy Maggie

Grady - 6 Months!

 

I absolutely cannot believe that May 7 marked Grady's half-birthday.  How has that much time flown by?  Do I even remember life without this wonderful little boy?  I feel so very blessed to have such a happy little baby - while we may have our challenges on occasion, for the most part, Grady is an easy kiddo who's quick to smile, easy to comfort, and growing up too fast for my liking!

Here's a quick run-down on what month 6 brought in the life of Grady:

* Has mastered the art of rolling!  It's a rare occurrence to find Grady where I originally put him down.  He's got the hang of using multiple rolls to get to what he wants going both tummy to back and back to tummy.  He's also pretty decent at turning himself in circles.

* Isn't sitting yet.  We've been working on it, but it's not my favorite thing to work on as it often results in spit up.  I'm trying to do a little sitting every day though, and Grady's definitely getting the hang of it.  However, if he sits unsupported, he pretty much falls forward until his belly is on top of his legs - then, eventually he tips over.  Thankfully he doesn't seem to mind this!  Grady would much prefer standing than sitting - he's got some strong and sturdy legs!

* Along the same lines, is a big fan of butt lifts...don't know what else to call them.  He plants his feet on the ground and pushes lifting his butt and trunk off the ground.  He does this a lot - not sure what he thinks he's accomplishing though!

* Has started babbling even more.  I was right in my 5.5 month entry that Grady did start saying "da-da." So sweet!

* Continues to enjoy food and lets you know if you're too slow getting it to him!  We're doing breakfast and dinner (maybe I said that in the last entry?).  Grady usually does a fruit and cereal or a vegetable in the morning and two vegetables at night.

Trying out ice-cream!  He initiated this and LOVED it!

* Has become a terrific napper!  Yea!  While not always perfect - Grady's napping for a minimum of 1.5 hours at each nap time (typically) with one nap often being 2.5 hours.  He also still takes a short late afternoon snooze and then heads to bed around 7:00.

* Has made some improvements with night-time waking.  I feel like we're all over the board in this regard.  I have started to let Grady sleep on his tummy as he's so good at rolling.  This seems to have helped, but it certainly hasn't been a total solution.  We're getting many nights of just 2 wake-ups, but, there are just as many of 3 wake-ups.  I'm trying to be positive (although I admit to feeling frustration, too) because Grady made such progress from a few months ago in regards to napping, so hopefully he will do the same with nights.

* Unfortunately has been struggling with some constipation (too much information???).  Poor kiddo.  If he'll take it, a mixture of apple juice and water definitely helps with this, but getting Grady to take a few ounces of this can be challenging or really easy...depends on his mood.

* Completely rejected a bottle of formula.  I thought I'd try a bottle just to see what would happen...I thought that maybe we could do one of these at night if he'd take it.  Maybe not...the little guy was majorly mad at me for attempting to give him such "nasty" stuff!  I plan on starting to cut back nursing when school starts in August.  I have a decent amount of frozen milk, but I imagine we'll have to do mixes of this and formula to get Grady adjusted when the time comes.

Gnawing on a "veggie" straw.  Again, self-initiated.

* Is a bit of a peanut...at Grady's 6-month check he weighed in at 15 pounds 11 ounces (17%), was 26 3/8 inches long (49%), and had a head circumference of 17 inches (29%).

* Loves people - especially his family!  Grady is so quick to smile and be comforted by all of us.  Just seeing the girls can make him smile or settle down if he's squawking a bit.  So sweet.  Grady loves watching the girls play outside; he especially likes doing this while hanging out in the Baby Bjorn - his hands and feet just get going crazy showing his excitement.

* Enjoys bath time, his play gym, being outside, his paci (only at nap/bed time though - otherwise, he's not interested), being tossed up in the air or pretend dropped, getting tickled along his ribs and upper thighs, blowing spit bubbles, attacking my face and chin (I'm assuming this is a sign of affection?), pulling hair, and spitting up on whomever is holding him!  :)

Whew - if 6 months has brought so many joys, changes, and, yes, challenges - what will the next 6 months bring.  I can't wait to find out!

PS - Today we got formal pictures taken of Grady and the girls...looking forward to seeing, posting, and sending them!

Easter 2014

We had a really nice Easter weekend a couple of weeks ago. 

Friday, before the Hodens arrived, the girls and I colored Easter eggs while Grady took a long (thankfully) nap.  They were pretty proud of their colorful creations...now, if only I could actually get them to try a hard boiled egg!

 

As usual, once the Hodens arrived, the kids became joined at the hip.  The girls got to have a sleepover with their cousins up at Grandma and Grandpa's on Friday.  Saturday, we had an Easter egg hunt which was a huge hit with the kiddos...so fun to see them racing around the yard, sharing treats, and re-hiding eggs for each other to find.  Even though it wasn't truly that warm, the kids (and the adults) spent pretty much the entire day outside soaking up the sun - a good thing, too, as Easter Sunday it rained, rained, and rained some more!

Here's a collage Beth put together of all the kids from playtime / egg hunting on Saturday:

Sunday morning the girls were up early to find their (and Grady's) Easter baskets.  They found Grady's first because it was so "easy" - just behind the couch.  Grace found her's next hiding behind a door downstairs, and Liv was last, finding hers hiding deep under the stair closet behind some folding chairs.  Pretty positive they LOVED their baskets - and, their favorite "treat" was the Disney movie Frozen!  Yes, we all can now sing every.single.song and quote multiple lines of this movie! 

We had a relatively successful church experience despite the fact that it was really hot and stuffy.  Father Phil gave a really nice sermon that I actually got to listen too!  Afterwards we drove around a bit so Grady could fall asleep before meeting with Brian's family and the Kruses for breakfast at Hotel Winneshiek.  Grady slept the whole time, so I really did enjoy brunch! 

During a brief rain break in the afternoon, I got a chance to take a few pictures of the kiddos!  Enjoy!

Grady - 5.5 Months

Definitely dropped the ball in terms of timeliness on this post - whoops!  I'll keep this one short as I do fully intend on doing a 6 month post in a couple of weeks (seriously, a half a year already???).  And, even though the post is a couple of weeks late, the pictures were taken on time!

This might be my favorite picture of the month because it represents the kids and their personalities pretty well:  Liv - I'll be super sweet to you all the time, Grady, but, Grace, don't count on the same treatment.  Grace - Yes, I do have a mischievous sparkle in my eye, and, yes, I do enjoy hanging around the house in just my panties.  And, Grady - What, I have to deal with these two yahoos all the time???  :)

A few new facts about our little guy:

* He's now sporting 2 teeth - the two bottom ones.  These showed up about 4.5 months after a few weeks of some serious drooling and a decent amount of night time waking.

* Speaking of night time...sigh...Grady likes to get up way too much.  Last night (miracle), Grady slept from 7pm - 3:00am, but usually, he likes to get up at 10, and 1:30, and 4:30 or some variation of that schedule.  The one good part of this schedule is that I'm usually only up with him for 10 minutes or so, so I still feel like I am getting enough sleep.  We've been experimenting with letting Grady fuss a bit more than normal before intervention, but I pretty much can't handle hard crying, so I'm just going to have to have faith that things will improve...and last night helps in that regard, too.

* While night times haven't been ideal, the past month Grady made huge progress with napping.  Rather spontaneously, he started freaking out when I tried to cradle/cuddle him at nap time before putting him down.  After some problem solving, I learned he wanted to be held upright with his paci in and his face against my neck.  Now, after a few minutes of this, he's ready to go down, and he typically (there are definitely exceptions to this) drifts off peacefully on his own.  He usually does an 1-1.5 hour nap in the morning and a 1.5-2.5 nap in the afternoon.  He takes a short evening snooze, too.

* We've been loving spending more time outside.  Grady's a huge fan of this and likes being in his stroller, but even more, he loves the Bjorn where he can be upright and seeing everything.

* Grady can be quite the flirt flashing his smiles; he can also be quite serious/studious and shows this by pulling his eyebrows down/scowling.

* YUMMMM baby food!  I decided Grady was ready for this because I noticed him really watching whenever I drank or ate something (especially if I was holding him).  In the last month and a half Grady's tried out and enjoyed (in this order):  rice cereal, green beans, bananas, peas, and sweet potatoes.  The last is definitely his favorite - he's like a little birdy opening his mouth for more. We've just been doing lunch for now, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I added more meals into the day's schedule!

* Grady is starting to compete with his big sister Olivia in the spit-up department - ugh - yuck.

 

* Grady's babbling quite a bit now, and just today was making a noise that sounded a bit like "da-da" but I might be fooling myself.  He squawks at his sisters and giggles when he's tossed around, ticked, or "roughed-up" in any way.  You can also always tell he's excited by watching his kicking and swinging arms and legs.

* Grady still isn't rolling over which I can't believe, but he does enjoy tummy time pretty well.  He also really likes sitting up (with assistance), and I feel like a few more weeks could have him sitting on his own as I can tell he's getting pretty strong in his trunk.  Grady also likes standing up on my lap and working those leg muscles!

Wisconsin Dells!

Definitely behind in posts these days...this one is, sadly, nearly three weeks past due.  I'm going to blame my tardiness on three things:  a really good book series, teething, and lack of sleep due to the aforementioned.  Well, now the books are done, the teeth are through, and, while my sleep (or lack-there-of) is still questionable, it's time to catch up!

Mid-March we headed to Wisconsin Dells for a weekend with the Hoden family and the Huinker grandparents.  It was an absolute blast!  Olivia and Grace (and soon-to-be Grady, I'm sure) are pretty obsessed with their cousins, so when we learned they would be moving to Canada after school's out this year, spending additional quality time with them became an instant priority!  I'm so glad this trip worked out, and I think that everyone has great memories of it!

Without permission I'm going to steal a few paragraphs from my sister-in-law's blog because I liked how she summed up the experience so much!

By Beth:

Every day pretty much went the same...wake up, cook an awesome breakfast, go to waterpark, come home, kids jump in warm jacuzzi tub, dry swimming clothes, eat lunch, nap, go to waterpark, come home, kids jump in warm jacuzzi tub, dry swimming clothes, eat dinner, kids go to bed and parents/grandparents crash!!

There were a few other highlights along the way. Tony's sister Erin and her fam live close to the Dells so they came over Saturday night and we cooked dinner and enjoyed some adult time while the kids went wild. Max got to do laser tag twice while we were there for his birthday present from Amanda and Brian. Max wasn't a fan of the dark slides, Mya loved them, and Ivy did every slide she possibly could have and loved every minute. They got tons of quality cousin time too! Mya and Olivia were inseparable as usual. Thank goodness for Grace's personality...at only 18 months younger than the other two girls, normally you would expect lots of hurt feelings, fights, etc. but she is pretty comfortable in her own skin and loves to entertain so she doesn't seem to mind too terribly that Mya and Olivia are attached at the hip!

This was another one of those vacations that was mostly all about the kids, but it helped a ton having my parents there. My mom took over Grady duties while at the water park and also got the kiddos snacks, towels, etc. Grandpa Rog was in the water with the kiddos the whole time (except for when he was going down the black hole:) All in all, besides losing Max once and Grace twice, and Tara/Tony not being there, it was a great little getaway. I would highly recommend it!

Winter Activities

As we'll soon be able to say it's spring (even if it doesn't really feel like it), I thought it was about time that I posted some of my favorite pictures from winter. 

As the girls get older, they definitely enjoy spending time outside a lot more.  For whatever reason we didn't do nearly as much sledding this year, but the girls and Brian spent a lot of time building forts, tunnels, and igloos out in the yard.  Maybe this had something to do with the absolutely enormous piles of snow that we had at the ends of our driveway!  Seriously, those piles were (so glad I can now use past tense) taller than I making it ridiculously difficult to shovel. 

When it comes to outside adventure, Olivia is probably the bravest - but not by much.  Maybe she's been hardened by more recesses outside or something, but Olivia isn't nearly as troubled by cold and wet as Grace, and, for those of you who know Olivia and how sensitive she can get, this is actually surprising.  When it comes to sledding though, both get a bit nervous, but typically if we can just get them to try it once, we'll be good to go.  Both of the girls really wanted Grady to play outside with them throughout the winter and were disappointed when I said he couldn't...next year maybe!  Anyways, I'm glad it seems like we're able to get outside more with each winter...I hope that more playing and perhaps snow shoeing and cross country skiing will be in the eventual future!

Enjoy the collection of pictures - they make for a long post!

Set 1:  Sledding at Christmas with the Hoden family...this was before we had much snow - crazy that two feet of snow covered the ground for most of the winter after this!

Set 2:  Building snowmen with Auntie Thyme on a warm day shortly after Christmas.

 

Set 3:  Building an igloo with Daddy!  This was one of those days where Grace wimped out and came inside.  And, don't panic, the red splatter on the snow isn't blood - it's snow paint!  :)

Set 4:  A warm day after many, many, many cold ones filled with lots and lots of snow!  The girls and Brian decided to make use of the swing set, and Liv, especially, enjoyed practicing her jumping skills!  I think the three of them were outside for close to two hours, and the fun didn't end until after a picnic lunch outside!  Obviously, after all the polar vortexes, our concept of "warm" has been dramatically altered.

 

Set 5:  And, lastly, not Grady's first, but one of his first walks outside enjoying the sunshine and fresh air!