Christmas at Home

Our Christmas break has been quieter than normal, and we definitely have missed gathering with our family. Having two joyous ladies to spend the days with, though, did bring a lot of happiness to our hearts. For the first time, Santa visited our home on Christmas morning. The excitement of finding the presents, opening the presents, and playing with the presents got us all up very early, but man, was it worth it. These sweet peas are SO MUCH FUN. Here is an early morning pic of opening presents:

Santa's big gift was a zipline, which will bring a lot of fun to our warmer months here!

Reindeer Food

To continue a tradition from Dana's house in our daycare days, the girls made and scattered reindeer food out on Christmas Eve. Some of these moments I wish I could just bottle up to always remember. Their joy, excitement, and sweet sense of belief is just perfect right now.

Baking Day

Two weeks ago, we spent most of a Saturday baking some holiday goodies. We had so much fun this year, and we had minimal arguing. Win, win! The day coincided with our first measurable snow of the year, which help make some pretty festive feelings. For the sugar cookies, we even got Jeremy in on the act. Like with most activities in his life, he declared himself very talented at baking! ☺️ It was a great day!

Kate's Interview

 

Here are Kate’s answers to her 7-year-old interview:

Favorite Food:  Noodles
Foods I Don’t Like:   Eggs
Favorite Thing to Learn:   Writing
Favorite Color:  Orange
Best Friend:  Addy, Karlie, Delaney, Natalie, and Katelyn
Favorite Game to Play:  Cool Math Games
Favorite Books to Read:  Chapter Books, like Ice Princess
Favorite TV Show:  KC Undercover, Big City Greens, and Bluey
Favorite Holiday: Christmas
Things I Do Well:  Jumping rope
Favorite Place to Go:  Grandma’s House
Favorite Thing to Do With Family: Play Monopoly
Favorite Thing about House:  My room
Favorite Thing to do Outside: Jump rope
Favorite Chore:  Making my bed
Least Favorite Chore:  Cleaning the toilets
Favorite Song: Little Mix “Power”, BTS “Dynamite”
When I Grow Up I Want to Be a:  Dance Teacher
Place I Want to Visit:  Hawaii
Favorite Part of Each Day: School
Favorite Drink: Pop
Favorite Sport or Activity to Play: Coloring
Something New I Want to Learn How to Do: Tell time
Best Part of Your Family:  My pets

Kate

Oh, our baby Kate. How is it that you are turning 7? This amazing little girl is growing up too quickly. 

On Kate's big day, the three of us went to wake her up together and whispered, "Happy Birthday, Kate." She whipped off her covers, sat up, and said, "Happy Birthday to ME!" What a nut.

Kate has grown into a funny, big hearted, loveable, slightly screen obsessed, dramatic, and oh, so fun little lady. Her sense of humor makes us laugh out loud daily, and even though her behavior at school comes close to crossing the line, she brings a lot of fun wherever she goes. We are grateful every day to be her parents. 

She enjoyed a fabulous day at school with her friends, lots of phone calls and texts, cool presents to open, and a delicious meal that night. All in all, it was a great day!

Kate, our wish for you this year is to keep up your sunny disposition. Your smile, laughter, and jokes bring so much fun to the world, and this year, we have all needed it! We love you, Kate!

Our Tree

Another tree hunting experience is in the books! This year proved to be a bit more difficult to find a tree that was fresh without paying a price Jeremy couldn't stomach. After three stops, we ended up with a beautifully shaped tree that hasn't filled our house with any kind of tree smell. 🙁 We aren't even sure if it is drinking water or if it is just the cats. Oh, well. The girls had a blast decorating the tree and reminiscing about the ornaments. At the end, Jeremy held off a star fight by picking up BOTH girls to put it in together. Way to go!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a quiet one, but it still gave us a lot to be thankful for. One thing in particular....my little potato peeler. I loved having help in the kitchen while cooking! Besides her wonderful company, I have NEVER enjoyed peeling potatoes! Win, win!

Sadie's Dream

This pandemic/quarantining/social distancing has gotten everything so mixed up in our world. This is how crazy things are at our house right now....

Happy Birthday, Audrey!

How is it that our Audrey is 9 already? I had a sinking feeling this week as I realized she is halfway to graduation. Time goes too fast! 

Audrey has grown into a passionate, caring, artistic, tender hearted, stubborn-at-times, deep thinking young lady. More and more I see that she is growing up and seeing the world through others' perspectives. We are so lucky to be her parents, as she is a pretty fantastic kid!

Our unusual year of 2020 brought a different kind of birthday for Audrey. No big family party, no friends over, no in person school. We tried to make the celebration as special for our sweet girl as we could, and I think we succeeded. When she went to bed that night, she said, "I woke up a little sad today, Mom, because I wasn't sure I would have fun today. I had a great day, though. Thank you." Oh, Audrey. 

For this 9th year, Audrey, we wish you confidence. Confidence in knowing your best effort is always enough. Confidence in knowing you're a wonderful person to get to spend time with. Confidence in knowing your curly hair is beautiful and makes you even more awesome! And finally, confidence in trying new things and believing in yourself. You can do it, Aud! We love you.

Audrey's Nine-Year-Old Interview

Our big girl turned nine yesterday.  How can that be?!  I will do a birthday post with a picture shortly, but here is her nine-year-old interview.  Some answers don't change each year, which makes me think we might have a teacher on our hands and a girl who really doesn't like eggs.  :)

Here are Audrey's interview answers for her nine-year-old interview:

Favorite Food:  Tacos from Mexican restaurants
Foods I Don’t Like: Eggs and gnocchi
Favorite Thing to Learn:  Art
Favorite Color:  Teal
Best Friend:  Katelynn, Lillie, Kaylee, and Kate
Favorite Game to Play:   Playing babies with Kate
Favorite Books to Read: Ramona, Babysitters Club, and books by Raina Telgemeier
Favorite TV Show:  Raven’s Home, Masked Singer, Cole and Sav’s blog, and KC Undercover
Favorite Holiday:  Christmas
Things I Do Well:   Art
Favorite Place to Go: Vacation houses and Grandma and Geeka’s house
Favorite Thing to Do With Family:  Play outside
Favorite Thing about House:  My pets
Favorite Thing to do Outside:  Swinging
Favorite Chore:   Cleaning my room
Least Favorite Chore:  Scooping dog poop
Favorite Song:  “Watermelon Sugar”,  “Believer”, “Rare”, and Z102.9 music
When I Grow Up I Want to Be a:  Teacher or Animal trainer
Place I Want to Visit:  Hawaii
Favorite Part of Each Day: Going to school
Favorite Drink: Root Beer, Cream Soda, and Hawaiian punch/Kool-aid
Favorite Sport or Activity to Play:  Taking Sadie on a walk
Something New I Want to Learn How to Do:  Train Sadie to do more tricks
Best Part of Your Family: My pets

Virtual School

We had too many staff members testing positive for Covid to maintain staffing levels, so we had to transition to online for a couple weeks. This timed out well for Kate having to quarantine anyway from an exposure at school, so what this added up to was the girls learning at home! Jeremy and I are splitting the days right now, so that neither of us has to use leave. He is in charge of the vast majority of learning while I am working at school in the morning, and it has been going really well! The girls are working hard, Jeremy's kept his patience, and Belle is back to getting a ton of attention during the days. We are hoping this is just temporary, as we do miss seeing people in person. Zooming with some kindergarten kids is not an ideal way to learn, but it is entertaining!😁

Belle's extra attention added up to dressing up in a Millwaukee Brewers toddler sized shirt. She resembled a small piglet.

The girls immediately set up a learning space in the dining room and had to add lights and decor!

Sadie's Pumpkin

Sadie chewed on another pumpkin we had, and I think her creation looks like a heart! She has a hidden talent. 😉

Pumpkins

The annual pumpkin carving commenced with Jeremy and the girls, and this year was, by far, the best year for girl involvement. Audrey and Kate both totally scooped out the seeds from their pumpkins, and Audrey even almost entirely carved her pumpkin by herself. It is fun to watch this event evolve over the years!

Here are the pictures:

Kate chose a witch for her pumpkin. 

Audrey carved a llama and a succulent...two things she loves!

Halloween

Halloween was especially exciting this year, as it was the holiday that could be approached with the most normalcy in this crazy year. Sweet Kate dressed as one of her favorite movie characters from the movie The Descendants. She really looked the part, especially with her blue hair and dramatic makeup. 

Miss Audrey dressed as a mom, which was a perfect costume for her, as her sweet mothering skills come out all the time in her play with Baby Easton. She looked very put together, so she must be a calm and organized mom!

As always, our tiny town was the perfect place to experience trick or treating, and the weather was gorgeous. We saw lots of friends, gathered lots of candy, and ended the night with a big Jack o' Lantern pizza. Our stomachs and our hearts were full after a fun night as a family.

Happy Halloween!

Leaves

One downfall of living in a forest comes during leaf season...

It does make for some fun, though!

Pumpkin Patch

A couple of weekends ago we made our annual trek to a pumpkin patch, this year again in Manchester. The weather was gorgeous, minus those dreaded black bugs that were biting.

The best part of our trip this year was a boys vs. girls contest in the corn maze. The girls decided to "let" the boys win this year so that they didn't get hurt feelings. 😉 It was a lot of fun, though! 

Audrey's Email

Now that Audrey is well aware of her school email account, she has been maximizing the usage of it.  Last week I received this email to MY school account:

Hi Kara! Kate took two spelling tests and the fist one she go two rong the other she got four rong.

Here is her first test.

1. Them 

2. Never she put Nevr

3. Me 

4. Rap

5. Give

6.Birds

7. Always she put awas

8. Then

9. Can

10.Work

I said to her it was not to bad for her 1st spelling test.

Here is her 2nd test. She got more rong becasae it is a hard list.

1. Before she put Befror

2. Someone she put Swomown

3.Some

4.just

5.Thank

6. Hello

7.Fall

8.When she put Wen

9. With

10.Why she put Way

 

She did better on the frist test but she did not do bad on the other one.

Your dathers teacher,

    Mrs. Haylee/Riley

Fall Photo Shoot

Last weekend the girls requested a photo shoot outside.  The colors around our house were gorgeous!  It is a good thing we did take a few pictures because the wind has blown SO many of them down.  How quickly things change!  Here are a few of the cute ones.  I do think these girls have modeling in their futures!  Or, at the very least a YouTube channel. :)

Take note of the high heels! :)