Game on

Note to self: when playing games with either of the older two---pay attention and be present! They are fiercely competitive and generally very good at whatever game it is we are playing (which side of the family does this come from?). Be it Blink, Memory, Scrabble Slam, Go Fish, Uno, or a multitude of other games, these kids aren't messing around. I was getting a bit distracted tonight during "game time" and Carter called me out. "Hey Mom! You better FO-cus, you aren't paying close attention." Hmmm.....I wonder who has said that to him?? A time or two???

A plea to all friends and relatives: Please come over and play with my kids! I am sick of getting beat by my children!

Ella

Ella is busy as usual these days. She is playing with all her new Christmas gifts. She adores all the fun and accessories that she has for her American Girl Doll. She is busy at school, and loving reading. She likes to read to the boys and us any chance she gets. She has had a pretty busy social calendar lately. She has had 2 birthday parties the last few weekends and one this weekend.

Lincoln Logs Reading to the boys

Birthday fun!

Swimming lessons are going great. She is developing into a graceful swimmer. She is big stuff in her googles!

She looks like such an athlete in this new swimming group. She is the youngest.

Playing indoor soccer at the gym.

Carter

Carter is enjoying all of his new toys from Christmas. He is very into building. He has new Legos, Wedgits, and Trio blocks. He can keep himself busy for long stretches of time and is very proud of his work. He blew my socks off about a week or so ago when he came to me declaring he could read. Being the reading teacher I am, my response was, "of course you can, let me hear you." Well needless to say he pulled out a book we hadn't read for some time and read it word for word. I was in awe. He sees and hears Ella getting so much attention for all her reading accomplishments and wants to show what he can do. It is priceless. We were going through a rough patch of him waking up so very early in the morning (he must get this disease from either his Grandma Blackmer or Grandpa Moorlag) he was rising anywhere between 5:30 and 6 and was not ready for the day! He learned to play in his room for awhile and is now "sleeping in" and we are praising him daily! Hanging out at the gym. Ready to play hoops. He is so adorable with his basketball in hand. I am impressed with his dribbling abilities. He and Scott went to shoot hoops the other day. I love to see that manly bonding!

Telling Christian to smile while he was waiting for swim lessons to start.

Carter got a gun for Christmas. Here are our fearless "hunters" watching for birds, rabbits, or deer. All the "acceptable things" he can aim that gun at!

Elmer in action!

Playing with his new Legos and new mats for his table.

Christian

The youngest goes first! Christian has entered into a few new stages lately. He is communicating so much, telling us what's on his mind, what he wants, and things he REALLY doesn't want. He now tattles on the other two. If they offend him in some manner, he comes to find me, states their name ("Henry" if its Carter and he's in trouble) and then proceeds to use gibberish in a tattling tone. Hilarious and cute but I guarantee this will get old. Christian is also at the root of many of the gasps and growls around here lately. The only one thing I know for sure is that he can't be alone and quiet for any extended period of time without trouble brewing.
Skills he is developing:

• Sits on the potty many times during the day per his request.
• Get's into lots of trouble using his stool he got for Christmas (this may disappear some night while he is sleeping)
• Loves setting off the car alarms since he now can reach into the organizer with the car keys.
• The dreaded but developmental skill of "getting himself out of the crib". His perfect face greeted me on Saturday morning saying, "hi mom!"
• Singing and dancing. He loves all the finger plays and nursery rhymes, oh and Frosty the Snowman.
• He loves crawling into bed with Ella or Carter at night and snuggling right in and says, "go Night-night Ella, I wuv you!"

This night he decided to jump into the bathtub with Ella...he was dressed and ready for bed!


He put hair gel in his own hair. YIKES!

Mom's helper:

Keeping on my toes at home and while we are out and about!

Thrill Seekers

It's been far too long since I have posted any pictures so I am going to add what I can to catch you up. 2010 is off to a busy and fabulous start. The kids are active as always. Here are some shots of our little thrill seekers enjoying a day on the sledding hill. Ella and Carter were great about trekking back up to the top. They were ALL about finding the speediest and bumpiest route down. Christian, to our surprise was just as excited as the older two. He was tickled to get a new sled for Christmas. At the top

Heading back up for more

Wheeeee!

Currently....

I am slacking on the blogging front. It's been busy around here (really?? when isn't IT busy here??) We've been realing from the holidays, enjoying our new toys, playing in the snow, trying to keep the house clean and all the other annoying organizational nonsense that functioning as a household of five requires. I have taken pictures, I just haven't uploaded them to the computer....they are coming this week.

Other things that are keeping me off the blog:

-Dennis the Menance (aka my once sweet and easy going 3rd child) is ransacking my house and wrecking havoc on his siblings. Must not leave him alone for long or he will destroy something. He was throwing clean laundry in the toilet the other day. Sheeze!
-I have new running shoes (thank you Mom and Dad Moorlag) and I have re-committed myself to running the 1/2 marathon with two other strong willed and slightly competive friends. I am trying to run every other day or whenever I get the chance.
-I am a bit busy at work, I love to start new things at school since we are buckled down and focused this time of year.
-Working through all the stuff that goes along with putting things in place for Carter to go to preschool in the fall. This seems early to me, but hey, he's ready. (He pulled me aside the other day and said, "mom listen to me read." Tears almost welled up in my eyes, I had done so much with Elle at this point and Carter well he learns a lot vicariously. Sure enough that kids "read" the book front to back. I was shocked. He's ready for school....I .....think!
-Elle has turned into a social coordinator lately. She was out for a playdate on Saturday, is going to a bday party next Saturday. And then a mom stopped Scott at church today to say that Ella had written a note and put it in Alia's backpack. The girls had planned a playdate they just forgot to tell us about it. Looks like we will be coordinating an afterschool playdate soon.


Life is good. Busy. and therefore, not a lot of time spent on blogging. I will try to be better this week. Ciao!

Christmas Morning...guess what Wii did all day?

To say that the morning was EARLY and completely fun filled is a slight understatement. The kids were wide awake while all the adults in the house were more on the sleep deprived side. None-the-less, we had tons of fun exchanging and opening gifts. I couldn't include all the pictures but here are a few highlights! Christian now has his own stool (along with the other two) for reaching new levels around the house. This is a wonderful AND dangerous gift. :)


After all the gifts were opened....as if they hadn't opened their share and then some, Evan brought out this bag with a HUGE smile on his face. He showed the kids the box and neither knew what it was. Then he told them and turned the tv on. There is where the rest of the day lies....playing Wii. So much could be written about all the fun we had. Do you know how humbling it is to get your butt kicked in bowling by your 3 1/2 and 6 year old??? Not to mention the shame that is involved when being knocked out by Carter during boxing. Sheeze! It was fun. Scott is addicted. It will take all the power I have to keep him from purchasing one of our very own. This Wii, is staying at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Hmmm, I wonder will they ever want to go out and play at the lake this summer? We will see. I have more pics to follow of all the wonderful gifts they received, they are coming. Life just seems to be moving soo fast these days. I don't want to miss anything!

Then there was this lovely little gift...the one I still need to have a stern conversation with Grandma about. THE. MICROPHONE. complete with a variety of quirky back up music, multiple levels of LOUD and the lovely added feature that Christian discovered: if you bang the microphone on the speaker, it makes this screaming, squealing, fingernails-running-down-the-chalkboard sound. Might I remind you Grandma....I will send this gift when they come up to spend the night???