Saturday, June 02, 2012

Summer time!

Wow. I haven't posted anything here since January! We have been busy busy since the holidays. Alex and Wil are doing well with karate and have both gotten their orange belts (8th kyu). Alex participated in his first kids tournament and seemed to enjoy it. He worked very hard. Alex is wrapping up first grade and in one week he will be a second grader! He has done very well in school and really likes math and science (and is very good at it I will add!). I wish I knew where all that time has gone.... Fletcher is almost 3! He has developed such a funny and cute personality. He is quite the jokester and will do goofy things to get a laugh. He adores his big brother and wants to do everything with him (and Alex likes Fletcher quite a bit too). He loves going to the park and has no fear for any slide or thing to do there. We go quite a bit so both boys can get their wiggles out. Grandma Betty (ma, gra) left us in March and boy do we miss her. Things are just so different now without her, but I know that she is watching over my boys and I am so happy that they got to spend time with her. We took in her cat, Jingles, and that has been fun. He is a very good cat and the boys love playing with him. Clifford just ignores him for the most part and Jingles will attempt a right hook at Clifford once in a while, but overall they just coexist peacefully. We planted our first vegetable garden today (well part of it). We put in a raised bed garden with tomatoes, peppers, broccoli (per Alex's request), romaine lettuce, onions, carrots, and radishes. We are going to have several container gardens with some more tomatoes, peppers, and various herbs on the deck. It was a lot of fun to get that going today and we are looking forward to fresh vegetables this summer! So between work, school events, home chores and fix up projects, and playtime, we have had our hands full. We intend to spend a lot of time this summer playing outside, camping, geocaching, and grilling.

Monday, January 02, 2012

Happy New Year!

The holiday season is already over! We had a wonderful Christmas and the boys had so much fun. They both got so many fun things and we have enjoyed playing with everything. No snow for Christmas this year-the weather has been very nice for me with little snow and warmer temperatures. I was able to take the week off between Christmas and New Year's and spent a lot of time with the boys. I also painted the living room with the help of my sister and it looks so great in here!

Alex is 7 now! He had a great birthday (the best ever he says). We went to the Mall of America and went on rides and went to Lego Land. Alex went on the big roller coaster by himself and loved it! It was a great time. We went home and ordered Chinese food and ate at our new table and then spent the night building Legos until midnight. He was able to stay up until the ball dropped this year. It was a very nice evening!

Fletcher is getting so big. He loves playing with all of his toys and with his big brother. His favorite thing is anything Spongebob Squarepants. He is talking a lot now too!

It's hard to believe that 2012 is here. I'm hopeful for a great year with lots of fun!

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

November already??

This year is just flying by! We have had a busy and fun fall and now winter is right around the corner!

Halloween was a lot of fun. We spent Saturday afternoon at cousin Robbie's and Betsy's annual leaf crawl. The boys had a blast and got so much fun stuff. Fletcher really got into it and loved crawling through the leaves. We then went to a pumpkin patch on Sunday and picked out our pumpkins, saw all the animals and took a hayride. We carved our pumpkins and had a great dinner at home. We took the boys trick or treating last night and they had a great time and got so much candy! This was Fletcher's first halloween where he actually went up to the houses and he always said "trick or treat", "thank you" and "happy halloween". Of course he learned this from his big brother who did a great job as well. At the end of the night, they were both so tired and Alex finally said, "I'm satisfied with this candy that I have". LOL. Fletcher was Buzz Lightyear this year and Alex was Jango Fett (from Clone Wars).

Alex is doing well in school. He amazes me with some of the things he knows. He likes to do math problems, so we work on that at night. He continues with karate and is working toward his orange belt now.
Fletcher loves hanging out with grandma and great grandma. They go a lot of places and he loves playing outside in their big backyard! He is talking a lot, knows the alphabet and can count to 10. He loves following his big brother around and will copy just about anything Alex does!

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

End of summer!

The summer just flew by! It was often too hot to enjoy it much, but we did manage to have some fun. The boys loved playing at the park and going to the beach. I hope we have an extended fall and short winter!

Alex is doing great with karate! He just got his yellow belt and did very well on his test! He was a bit nervous about it, but I think he'll be more relaxed next time since he knows what to expect. We took him to see his first concert last week at the State Fair (Toby Keith and Eric Church). We had a great time! School is back in session and he started first grade at a new school-Capitol Hill Magnet. I'm hoping that he will make a lot of new friends and be challenged with his school work.

Fletcher turned 2! We had a party at Chuck E Cheese with family and friends. It was a lot of fun and he enjoyed the food, games and cake! He loves playing outside and really liked going to the beach (in the water even when being held by mom or dad). He's growing big and he's healthy. Had his 2 year check up today and weighs 36# and is 37 inches tall.

Looking forward to the nicer weather and fall fun soon!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

It's Summertime!

It is so nice to finally have nice weather here! That snow and cold lasted way too long!

Alex finished kindergarten yesterday. He did so well in school this year and learned a lot of French! He made some friends and says he is going to miss them next year, but hopefully we can get some visits in over the summer. Alex will be attending Capitol Hill Magnet School for gifted and talented starting next year. He can go through 8th grade there and we are hoping that he will be challenged. We went to the open house last week and one of the girls from his kindergarten class was there, so he will see a familiar face in the fall. He does very well speaking French and will just starting speaking it out of the blue. He is still loving karate and working on his kata so that he can move up and work on his yellow belt. He is really looking forward to a fun summer!

Fletcher is growing so fast and becoming so independent. He really wants to do everything himself. He is chattering quite a bit and knows a lot of words now. He can count to 10 and is recognizing some of the alphabet, knows all his body parts and is pretty good at figuring things out. He loves Spongebob the most and gets really excited about the number 9. He adores his big brother (even though he's starting to try and scrap with him a bit) and he loves the dog (who tolerates Fletcher and is easily bought with food that Fletcher loves to give him). Clifford really is tolerant and gentle with the kids when I suspect other dogs would not be.

We have a lot of house projects to get done this summer, but our main goal is to have a lot of fun and get out and do everything we can!

Sunday, March 06, 2011

Long Winter

We are expecting another mound of snow to fall tomorrow. We have had so much snow this winter and I have had enough. Hopefully spring will get here fast!

The boys are doing well. Fletcher keeps growing and is so much fun! He really loves his big brother and although they are starting to pick at eachother a little, it is very easy to see how much they adore each other. He is saying some words-Mama, Dad, clock (gock!), and recently started saying ears and eyes when he points to them. It's hard to believe he is 18 months old already!

Alex is wonderful. He has lost another tooth! He now has a gap in the front on top and the other front tooth is now loose too. He is getting close to finishing up his first year of school and has done really well. He tested into Gifted and Talented and we are checking out some options for him. He may stay at the French Immersion school, but we have a couple of other choices too.

We have been talking about spring/summer and all the fun we are going to have. A lot of weekend camp outs and geocaching trips are in our future! Hurry up spring!