Life Lately

We’ve been listening to a lot of Christmas music and we get a beautiful screen saver to make us feel like we are sitting by a warm and cozy fireplace.  Now if only it were real.

Nov 14th the kids had their first ice skating lessons.  I was worried that Sterling wouldn’t do it but she rocked it. As did Xander. But I wasn’t so worried about him.  He’s been wanting to ice skate for the past year.  They both were skating without assistance after the first 30 minutes.  Lessons are an hour each Saturday. They loved it and I’m so glad hubs made me sign Sterling up too!

Nov 16th was a busy day.  I picked Xander up from school then headed out to get him a quick haircut.  We got back home, I dropped the kids off with Nick and I headed out to the outlet mall to pick up some adorable outfits for my niece.  I told the kids if they were good we could put the tree up that night.  Of course I regretted those words come 430 when I’m just strolling in the house and still need to make dinner.  They were good so I kept my word (just didn’t decorate it).

As we were putting the tree up, Xander says, “mom, now that it’s Christmas day, are we going to eat turkey?”  Kids and their concept of time!

Their idea on where to hang the bows: “this is the perfect spot, mom”

Nov 18th Xander had class pictures…but I was a space cadet and forgot to snap one beforehand so here he is playing on the kindle.

Nov 19th Sterling had her class pictures.  Oh my.  This girl went through 7 different outfits until she was happy with her decision.  She makes my head hurt!

Here they are showing me how she smiled for pictures

 

We’ll just say I’m really curious which face she gave.  She’s really adamant that it’s this last one. Sigh. Little girls have a personality all of their own.

This is how she acts 99.7 percent of her day.  Nothing goes her way.  Ever.  She makes my head hurt…oh wait, I already said this, ha!!

I also decided to let Sterling do my hair.  Which lead into doing my makeup. Xander had to help once the makeup came out.  Of course, right?!   I went with the flow of it and they had so much fun.

 

Proud little artists!

Nov 20th Sterling had dance and we went to pick up a mini tree to put on my desk.  I decided that I didn’t want all the miscellaneous ornaments on the main tree this year. But I still wanted them out because most of them we got in Germany and some are what they kids have made.  Special memories on display.  This picture was after I got it set up and made sure the lights worked.  Xander requested this picture pose, ha!

Nov 21st they had ice lessons.  Again, they loved it.  I can see a lot of lessons in our future.

I love the coach that is with Sterling in this picture.  She’s so good and see’s the potential in her.  Any time another coach gives Sterling the assisted walker, she’ll skate over and take it away and stay with her to build her confidence.  Sterling does great on her own when someone’s encouraging in front of her.  She skates half the rink a few times each session and does awesome. I get so made when the other coaches pass the walker to her and moves on to someone else.

He’s so independent.  He listen’s to his coaches well and takes off.

That’s life lately. Hopefully I’ll be one more this week as we only have school Monday and Tuesday this week.

Have a great one!!

Saying Goodbye

On the morning of Oct 30th, my cousin Duane committed suicide.  He was only 39 years old. So young.  This tragedy shocked the whole family.

{image via google}

I let my boss know that I planned to attend the funeral right away so she could start looking for a sub. At the time, it was unsure when the funeral would be.  My cousin was an organ donor so he was able to save five lives. 

The kids got busy packing their most important things.  Xander unloaded his pajama and t-shirt drawers, and Sterling began following suit.  Our large suitcase was quickly filled with nonsense.  The next day I started over and finished it up so on Wednesday morning (4th) we could head up to MN for the visitation/funeral.

The visitation to say goodbye to him was on Thursday (5th).  Here’s a canvas of a poem for him.  Such a beautiful peace that represents him so well.

On Friday morning the funeral was held.  They had a truckers parade after service to honor my cousin.  On the way out of the church my uncle (his dad) carried his urn out to his truck and took a ride around the block with the other truckers.  Watching my uncle carry the urn was hard, very hard.  My uncle was holding onto it for dear life hugging it so tight.

The kids enjoyed swimming in our down time.

On Saturday (7th) we went over to my cousins place and she held a first birthday party for her little girl.  It was a nice and happy ending to such a hard and sad week.

 

Remember this…

Halloween 2015

We celebrated all week this year.  It started on Sunday at our local outdoor mall (pics on previous post).

On Thursday Sterling’s class had their class party and instead of playing outside in their costumes, they had a parade and walked through PDO classrooms.  I didn’t get to attend her party, but I’m sure she had fun because she’s talked about it ever since!

On Friday Xander had his class party.  Sterling and I were able to attend his and we had so much fun.  There was a costume walk, lots of fun games, a craft, and a festive yummy sugar cookie. 

 

 

The day arrived and the poor kids had to wait all. day. long. and the wait was torture!  Especially for Sis this year.  The day was rough.  And the time crawled.  The kids were obnoxious, loud, and monsters.  We almost took away such a fun night from them since they were so naughty, but I just couldn’t.  I took away bowling from them on Monday instead.  It was a good thing they were still allowed to go Trick or Treating because their little friend, her family, and her best friend came into our neighborhood this year.  The kids loved going door to door with them! 

 

It was a fun Halloween week and Sterling has thrown some fits to take off her Dorothy costume.  She took it off long enough for me to clean it yesterday and after her shower it was back on and she was sleeping in it, again.  I’m hoping when it’s time to get dressed she will take it off without a fit.  Wish me luck!

(she wears gloves lately because she’s been chewing on her fingers when she’s nervous, so we’re trying to save them by having her wear gloves.  she likes it and asks for them whenever she’s feeling anxious or nervous. it works.)