December

Wow. December came up so fast! We spent the weekend mostly snowed in from this huge storm! Today is a snow day at school and since our alley is treacherous, we are all spending the day at home, hoping to get some Christmas decorations up and get our cars out. We're still waiting on the plows to come through.

In other news, Fletcher is walking/running all over. He is growing so fast! He says mom, dada, yes, hi, and wow. He loves playing with all his toys and his brother.

Alex is learning a lot of French at school. I am pretty impressed by what he can say and we probably should do some learning with him as he won't always tell us what he is saying!

I hope the roads around our house improve soon. We are getting a little stir crazy!

Alex's Kindergarten Picture

Baby steps...

We have been keeping ourselves busy this fall. Alex is still enjoying school and is learning so many new French words. Many times I have no idea what he is saying, but it sounds good! He is taking violin lessons at school as well and is starting to get the hang of it. He isn't a big fan of practicing yet, but I hope that comes soon.
We enjoyed the afternoon at Robbie and Betsy's annual leaf crawl. So many leaves, so many kids, an abundance of toys and treats! The boys had such a great time and so did we. Fletcher dressed up for his first Halloween as Superman. Alex was a very cool Optimus Prime.
Fletcher is starting to take some steps! He is very hesitant yet, but has started taking a couple steps here and there. He gets around very quickly by crawling, so he prefers that still. He is growing like a weed, has a mouthful of teeth, and loves to "chatter". He adores his big brother. The two are just wild together.
Wil is heading up north this weekend with his oldest son to hunt. Hopefully they have a good trip and get some deer. He will come back to a new job waiting for him and we are so happy that one has finally come around for him!
It's hard to believe how fast this year is going. Thanksgiving is right around the corner and then the countdown to Christmas/Alex's 6th birthday! I wish I had a pause button to slow things down a little.

Tooth Fairy time

Alex lost his first tooth this morning. And now he has lost his second tooth tonight! He did very well with it and is quite excited about the tooth fairy coming. He already has a tooth growing in that was behind these teeth, so it isn't very noticeable that he has a big gap in his bottom teeth. I can't believe that he is such a big boy now! When I asked him how much he'll charge the tooth fairy, he thought $7 was a good deal!
He also started violin lessons today and did well. He was able to pluck the first line of Twinkle Twinkle. I hope he enjoys it and sticks with it. He was pretty happy about going today. He is making many friends in school and seems to have a great time. I love seeing the look on his face when we pick him up at the end of the day-even though he's having fun, he misses us!

Time Flying By

It's been a great weekend! The weather has been beautiful and we've been enjoying hanging out together. Wil took Alex to see the Tartan High School football game Friday night. They stayed until about halftime and had a lot of fun. It rained a bit and it was a little cold, so they stayed as long as they could stand.
Fletcher got his 1 year pictures done yesterday and they turned out great! We also took him to get his first haircut at Kids' Hair. He didn't cry at all and got a very nice hair cut. I am sad to see his baby hair gone, but he looks very handsome with his little man cut.
Tomorrow is Alex's first day of school. I decided to take the day off so that we can take him together. I cannot believe how fast things are going. I swear I just brought him home from the hospital yesterday! So many big changes for us these days!

End of summer

Summer is starting to wind down which means a lot of new things in our home! Fletcher had his 1 year checkup the other day. He weighed 28# 9 oz and is 32.25 inches tall! Everything is just fine and he is as healthy as can be. He zooms around the house, adores his big brother, and laughs a lot. He pulls himself up and cruises around, but is waiting to take some steps. He babbles a lot and likes pointing at things. He loves his big brother and they are super silly together!

Alex will be starting kindergarten on 9/13 at L'etoile Du Nord elementary in St. Paul. We went to the open house the other night and met his teacher. She seems very nice and Alex liked her. I am so excited for him to learn new things and make new friends. We have gotten most of his school supplies but need to hunt for a few more things. Apparently waiting until the end of August to shop for these things is a bad idea. Lesson learned for next year!

We have had a great summer and I am looking forward to fall. The cooler weather has been so nice!

Happy 1st Birthday Fletcher!

Summer Fun!

We've been keeping pretty busy around here this summer. We've hit a couple of the area county fairs (Ramsey and Dakota), gone to the park a number of times, and have just enjoyed hanging out. Alex has enjoyed swimming a few times and Fletcher has not. It's hard to believe that fall is just around the corner (and I'm very happy about it!).
Alex will be starting kindergarten soon and we found out who his teacher will be. Still have to get the school shopping done. I think he's starting to get a little excited about it, but he seems a little nervous to start something new. He is reading just about anything and is very good at sounding out new words. He had a fun weekend with his great aunt Cathy and his cousins.
Fletcher is growing and is very mobile. He crawls all over the place and rolls around. He is not one to sit around! We pulled out one of Alex's old toys today-a Leap Frog piano that you stand up at and it has all kinds of things to do. Fletcher stood up and kept standing there without holding on to anything! He's cruising all over the furniture and it won't be long before he's walking! I cannot believe how fast this past year went. He got to spend the weekend with gaga and papa and they all had a good time.
We're skipping the State Fair this year, but looking forward to heading out to the Ren Festival in the next few weeks. We hope to get one more camping weekend in this year and maybe a little more geocaching.

Recent pics

What we're doing....

We are getting ready for our big week long vacation to the Black Hills! We are going to take my parents pop-up camper and head out for a week of fun! It's been quite awhile since I've been out there, so I am very excited to go and take the boys (and Wil has never been either). Alex says he is most excited to play in the camper, see bears, and Mt. Rushmore. We plan to see just about everything and maybe do a little geocaching along the way.

Fletcher is scooting around everywhere and tries to get into everything he shouldn't. He is starting to "talk". He says "bye" and waves, says "hi" (which sounds like eye), mama, dada, and dog (which sounds like dug). Alex is enjoying summer and doing a lot of playing and reading. The two of them have a lot of fun together and no one can get Fletcher laughing like Alex can.

I'm looking forward to a fun-filled summer and our trip will be a good start!

Graduation and 9 month checkup!

Everything checked out fine-we are lucky to have another healthy boy! At 9 months, Fletcher weighs 26#, 5 oz. and is 30 inches long! No shots today, so it was a smooth appointment.

Alex graduated from preschool on Friday. It's amazing how fast time is going and I can't believe he'll be starting kindergarten in the fall!

Fletcher is 9 months old!

It's hard to believe how fast these babies grow! Fletcher has about 7 teeth coming in and is figuring out how to use them. He is doing well on chewing things and even tried a little taste of pizza at a birthday party yesterday. He's very close to crawling-gets up on all fours and rocks, but then goes into an inchworm type crawl. Any day now, he'll be taking off I'm sure!
Alex is going to graduate from preschool next week! This year just flew by. He made some good friends and even got invited to his first birthday party for a school friend. He is so excited to buy a gift and go. He is reading just about anything and figures out words that amaze me. He has currently been reading some books that range from the 2nd to 3rd grade level! So proud of my smart boy! We attended a birthday party yesterday at Brunswick Zone. He bowled for the first time and loved it. We also got to play laser tag (fun!!!) and he got to do the bumper cars. We had a great time!
Very happy to have a 3 day weekend. Happy Memorial Day!

A few new things going on in our world. We've been working on remodeling our bathroom and are hoping to be close to being done. A few unexpected surprises came up (unfortunately including a trip from a plumber! ). I'm excited for it to be done and can't wait to see the finished result.

Fletcher is now sitting up alone and trying to figure out crawling. He is also getting his 3rd tooth, which apparently has made him not feel well today. He enjoys eating many different types of food, especially fruit!

Alex is finishing up preschool. We have him enrolled at L'Etoile Du Nord French Immersion school in St. Paul for kindergarten next fall! I can't believe how fast this is happening-I swear we just brought him home from the hospital yesterday! He is reading everything he sees and amazes me everyday with what he knows!

Looking forward to summer-lots of camping, geocaching, gardening and whatever else we can get in to.

Vote for Fletcher!

Fletcher is 6 months old!

6 month checkup went well. 25# and 28 inches long! Fletcher has 2 teeth coming in and I think he is finding it pretty annoying. He's doing some sitting up and scooting around a bit. Alex is such a big help with his little brother and they just love each other so much!
We have picked some schools for Alex to attend next year. Kindergarten already! I cannot believe how fast time has gone. We should hear soon which school he gets into and I'm looking forward to that. Alex has started floor hockey at Longfellow and seems to like it so far.

A great weekend

We had a very fun weekend. We spent a lot of yesterday at Chuck E. Cheese with cousins and had a great time! Alex then slept at gaga and papa's, and Fletcher slept over at great aunt Cathy's. Wil and I got to get out for dinner and a movie and a nice night/morning of quiet!

We found Fletcher's first tooth poking through today. It's on the bottom right and you can just feel the very tip of it. It does seem to be bothering him a little bit-lots of drool and somewhat fussy. He is now enjoying a variety of baby foods!

Alex and Fletcher are finally sleeping in the same room together. It's been pretty hard for Alex to accept this change after being in his own room for 5 years, but we finally got it to work out tonight. They are both in there and sound asleep-hopefully it stays that way!

I'm hoping that spring is not too far away-I have had just enough of the snow and ice.

Sunday afternoon...

I wish weekends were longer! They seem to just fly by and then Monday comes around super fast!

Fletcher is a big time roller now. It's hard to get him to be still now that he's figured out how to move. He is definitely not going to be one to sit around! We're working on some baby foods. So far, he seems to really like his rice cereal. We tried green beans a couple times and they were not a big hit. I can't believe he's already 5 months old!

Alex is still enjoying school. He got an invite from a little friend to go over and play sometime. He was very excited about that. We're searching for a school for him for kindergarten in the fall! I can't even believe it. So far we found a couple of interesting schools and have a couple more to look at in the next couple weeks. I am definitely not ready to have a school-aged child!

Not much else going on. It's super bowl sunday, so Wil will be focused on his Colts today. I'm hoping to just relax and play with the kids for the day.

Random January pics

Ice Skating!

Alex went ice skating for the first time yesterday with his great uncle Bob and Holly!

Hopefully the last visit to the Doc for awhile!

Alex had his 5 year checkup today. 47.5 inches tall and 58 pounds! He will surpass me in height very soon I'm sure! Everything is fine-he did great for his shots, cried on the last one which burned. Fletcher got rechecked today and is doing just fine. We can just use the neb on an as needed basis. He was finally able to get his shots today and cried. This was the first appointment of either of theirs that I had to miss due to being in training today.
Tonight is a pizza night and we plan to just stay in and try to stay warm! I think it might be a Lego's night :)