New House

We moved into our new home the last week of April. The girls have done a good job adjusting to the new house. Claire asks us when we are going to move back into our old house because she misses her swing set. Lydia has not skipped a beat sleeping in her new bedroom for naps or bedtime. She seem to really like her new room. Claire on the other hand does not want to sleep in her new purple room and says she wants to trade it and just sleep with Mom and Dad. Along with the new house came a new puppy named Charlie. His Mom is a Boxer, German Shepard, Husky Mix and his dad is a full bred Lab. He looks like a black lab with brown/black speckled feet. He shares a birthday with Chad's sister Cara and Aunt Julie, April 23rd.

Lydia's new favorite word is, ya! She also has been doing very well potty training and will go potty on the big girl potty 2-3 times a day. I am still a little leery to put her in big girl panties.

Claire has started reading all the books in sight. Aunt Cassie got her on video reading, "Green Eggs and Ham". Chad took the girls to the Dinosaur Exhibit at the Zoo and they liked to dig for bones in the sand but were afraid of the dinosaurs. We also went to the Lego Land Exhibit at Lauritzen Gardens and a Storm Chasers game. We are participating in a Children's Hospital Fundraiser next month called The Race to 50k and our team name is "Team Claire". They came out to interview and tape us and Claire was not as cooperative as we would have hoped.

Here is a link to our donation landing page for the Children's Hospital Race to 50k:
http://www.helpmakemiracles.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=201803

Here is a video we put together of some pictures of Claire's Hospitalization:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3922269/Claire's%20Hopsitalization.m4v

The new house has been tons of fun this summer! Chad bought a swing set on Craigslist that came with a few other accessories like a metal climbing dome, teeter totter, and extra swings. The girls call it, "the park". They also enjoy riding their Pink Cadillac Power Wheel, playing in the sand box and bubbles. We have just had good enough weather this last week to bring out the kiddie pool.

Easter 2013!

We had a really fun Easter! We went to 3 different Easter egg hunts this year and the girls did really well! They were both a little skidish with the Easter Bunny but we did manage to get a picture taken with him. This month was full of the word NO! for Lydia. She even embarrassed us when we were out to dinner and kept screaming no loudly the whole time. She has also learned the word "mine". Poor Claire, Lydia used to be good at sharing and now all she hears is "no, mine". Lydia went pee and poop in the potty both for the first time this month, she is just 19 months old! We started having her sit on the potty at bath time and sometimes it is a struggle to get her off! At least she is not afraid of it! Lydia loves to hug, kiss, and feed her baby dolls then drag them all over the house. She is a really great "Mommy"!

Claire continues to do well in preschool and has learned her new address this month. She has just started reading sight words books!  She will go around telling people, "I am learning how to read books". She is also starting soccer this month. Claire has already taken her pink Cadillac out for a ride on one of the first nice days this Spring. Claire is a great helper! She loves to help Lydia get dressed, eat, brush her teeth, etc and when she does she will turn to me and say, "I'm just like a Mommy"! She is preparing for her preschool graduation and they have to tell what they want to be when they grow up, Claire says she wants to be a firefighter. Chad always tells her "you don't want to be a hose dragger". Then I will tell her, you know that means you have to run into burning buildings don't you? Then she says she still wants to be a firefighter. I caught her practicing some of the songs that they will perform at graduation and I am sure it will be cute!

 

 

Thanks Grandma Louise for taking all 4 grand daughters to get their pictures taken!

 

 

Lydia is 18 Months!

We went to stay in a cabin at Mahoney St Park with The Dabelstein's and The Kaisershot's. While the kids did not sleep well I think they had fun playing all day long together. It was Lydia's first time sledding and Claire went ice skating.

 

 

Lydia's vocabulary has flourished this last month and the words she now says have surpassed what I can keep track of. Claire likes to sit with Lydia and quiz her on all the words she can think of at the dinner table and in the car. Lydia finally got weaned from her bottle for good, even though she asks for it all the time. She is a great sleeper and will sleep 11+ hours a night and most nights will want us to put her to bed early. At her 18 months doctors appointment she weighed in at just barely 21 lbs, I think she is all belly.

 

Claire still enjoys her gymnastics and is going to start soccer soon. She is also a great swimmer and is still enrolled in swimming lessons. One of her favorite parts of her swimming lessons is sitting in the hot tub afterwards. This month we tried to test her into Kindergarten early but because of a Oct 15th cut off she was not able to take the test. So I spent a few weeks this month in panic mode tying to find her a good preschool for next year. Claire is working on phonic sounds and sight words in her current preschool. They are also starting to learn about money and very simple addition.

 

The girls are still a handful when we go out to visit the new house as it is even muddier and dustier than ever during the construction and all the girls want to do is run wild and crawl on the dirty floors. We are still hoping to be able to move into our new home the 2nd or 3rd week of April.

Lydia is 17 months!

This month Lydia has added a lot of words to her vocabulary. She has learned Papa, Banana (Nana), Purple, Cassie (Caca). She loves to play in the ball pit and with the Little Tykes Minivan in Grandma and Grandpa McKinney's basement. Lydia is still our good little eater!

Claire has learned more sight words and likes to point them out when she sees them. She loves to throw herself around and practice cart wheels, bridges, and handstands from what she learns in her tumbling class. Claire loves to watch all kinds of movies and bake/cook with Grandma Dalrymple.

 

 

 It has been hard to take the girls to the new house while it is under
construction since the girls loves to roll around in the dusty/dirty
floors and run/climb around on all the construction things.

 

The girls love to play dress up with their cousin Nora.

They are Daddy's little princesses!

 

 

Chad took the girls to the Zoo and it looks like
 they had a great time......

 

Lydia is now 16 months!

Our family had a very nice Christmas! It was full of toys for the girls!  We also had a share of heartbreak these past weeks. A dear friend of the family, Al Andresen, who was like our Grandfather passed away unexpectedly when he caught another burst of Pneumonia. A few days following that we made the really tough decision to put down our dog Joe who had been having a hard time with Arthritis and a few heart conditions. Joe would have been 13 in February and he was a great dog. We will hold his memories in our hearts! Claire has randomly came up to me and told me, "oh, we forgot to let Joe out" when she thinks of him. She has also asked me if we could get a cat or a yellow puppy. Thank goodness Lydia has been oblivious to the whole thing so I only have to field questions from Claire.

Lydia has been doing better trying to imitate sounds of words but has not really added any words to her vocabulary yet this month. She is a skilled climber! Her 2 favorite Christmas presents were her Bead Maze Toy and her Little People Princess Castle. Lydia loves to color and try to put together puzzles. She has occasionally said "hi" and "bye".

Lydia loves to copy her big Sister!

Getting ready to go outside and play in the first snowfall!

 

Ice skating at Conagra for Aunt Katie's Birthday.

We made a trip to the Zoo with The Waterman's

 on one of the nicer days this Winter.

Claire has learned a bunch of new stuff at Pre-K. She can now independently count to 100 and is getting really good at learning how to read and write new words every week. Over her winter break she discovered a really fun website to help her in phonics and reading, www.starfall.com. She still loves to watch her favorite movies, practice writing friends and family members names and putting together puzzles. She is able to do about a 48 piece puzzle by herself. She still loves going to her tumbling class and swimming lessons!

Lydia is 15 months!

Lydia is now 15 months old! She still weighed 19 lbs at her 15 month check up visit, which means she has not gained any weight since her first birthday. I am not sure how that happens since she eats everything in sight! We had to move her doctor visit up a few days because she was not feeling well. Now both girls are on the same antibiotic and hopefully Chad and I will not get sick. She just learned how to say, "Ho, Ho, Ho." Lydia loves to give kisses, brush her teeth, climb on the table and most of all have dance parties. For just learning how to walk she is a pretty good dancer!

We went to the Ramada tropics overnight in Des Moines

with Cara & Howie and all the kids

 

Claire has been doing really well in preschool and has started putting together her phonics sounds and learning sight words. The other day I was driving and I heard her spelling Mom and Dad from the back seat. She also knows the, of, and Lydia. I am not sure if she is starting to read or if she is a good guesser when I pause and try to let her finish a sentence or guess a word. She really likes the baby can read books. Claire just started a tumbling class this last month at Elite Cheer and seems to really like it. She is always throwing her self around perfecting her cartwheel, hand stands and forward rolls.
                                      

Claire with her cousin Nora

 

 

Aunt Cassie came out to help us take pictures and Claire had enough!

Santa pictures 2012! Poor Lydia about the third time seeing Santa she was all frowns but no tears.

Santa #1 at Bass Pro Shop

 

Claire did so good! She was reviewing her list with him....

 

Santa #2 at The Police Union Hall

 Lydia loved her present afterwards.

 Santa #3 at Centris

 

 



Claire is 4!

Claire turned 4 last week! We brought cupcakes to Preschool before her birthday to celebrate with her class. We also had a really fun birthday party out at the acreage! We rented her a bouncy house, took the kids on a hay rack ride to find pumpkins, and then decorated them. The kids even got a chance to walk through the Haunted Barn we made for the first time. Claire is really starting to mature. I have already started noticing her playing more contently for longer periods of time. Asking for things more politely. Having big girls conversations and questions all the time. We have started using her turning 4 as motivation to eat all her food at dinner time, stop pottying in her pull-ups at night and be a better listener. She loves swimming lessons and Preschool. Her biggest accomplishment this month is learning my cell phone number. She also keeps getting better at writing her full name! She weighed 35 lbs at the doctors office which makes her 52nd percentile for her weight and at 38.5 inches tall only 26th percentile for her height. She is getting bigger! Claire was a really cute pig for Halloween. This year we went to her Preschool's Fall Festival, and went trick or treating around Great Aunt Julie's office at West Telemarketing.

 

Lydia is almost 14 months and still eats everything in sight. She now loves to play with puzzles and has started trying to mock Claire and us at writing and coloring. She has also started to understand how to play with toys such as rings and shape sorters. Lydia has started to brush her teeth and has 6+ teeth. She had some issues with diaper rash this month and I think we got it under control now. When we took her into the doctor she weighed 19 lbs. Lydia was a really fun cow for Halloween and thank goodness because it was a warm costume and we really had some cold trick or treating events this year. She was a really good sport about wearing a costume this year!