That's a Wrap!

It's the day after Christmas and we're up to our eyeballs in wrapping, boxes, packaging and new gifts.  We have had four Christmases and boy, does it show! 

We were able to get together with the Luiken family last weekend.  The kids always love being with their cousins!

I spent several of the next few days making Christmas goodies...that's a post in it's own!

Early in the week DD was home with the stomach flu, but was well enough by Thursday to make it to Grandma Balvanz's Christmas.  We played a little grab bag game and the kids just had so much fun with it.  One of Lane's bag was a huge pair of men's work gloves and Daddy got a pair of cute reindeer socks.  D & Dig laughed so hard! 

Christmas Eve we spent the evening with my family.  We missed Uncle Steve and Aunt Lisa this year.  Hopefully, we get to see them soon!  Mom made a delicious prime rib and we headed to church.  We then opened gifts and spent more time eating.  It's kinda what we do.  =)

Around 11 the kids decided we should hurry home to prepare Santa's treats.  Before 7 the next morning I heard little feet running and soon I had two little monkeys begging me to get out of bed. 

We had plenty of time to open gifts and play with all the new stuff before heading to Grandma and Grandpa Larson's for Christmas dinner. 

We are so blessed to have our families close.  Everyone was so generous and we are so thankful.

Now I'm pooped and the house is a mess.  Just the way it should be!

Dig was so proud! He picked out this helmet for his

daddy a few months ago and has

kept it a secret and hidden ever since!

It's Daddy's favorite team.

This was the number one thing on Dig's list...mini helmets!

And this was the number one thing on DD's list, and iTouch.

Now Nanny and Momma have to paint Dig's room

and put up his Ricki Stanzi Fathead!

Merry Christmas from the Luikens!

He Means No Disrespect



Fairy Dust

I'm finally trying to catch up with long overdue posts.  Disregard the order of the following several entries.  Just know they're important for this momma to remember, no matter how long ago they happened!

A month ago tomorrow, Ms. DD Kathleen lost her very first tooth.  It was a long time coming and to tell the truth, she doesn't have another single loose tooth in her little mouth.  So, it was very important that the Tooth-Fairy make a very big deal about this! 

DD chose to put her tooth under her pillow.  When her daddy was a kid he put his tooth in a cup of water and then the Tooth Fairy put his money in the cup.  DD has a cute little box Sierra gave her when she was born to put a tooth in, but Drue has it full of treasures on her dresser. I had a yellow-gingham pillow with a tooth pocket she could have put her tooth in, but she chose the no-fail method and stuck her dinky little tooth right under her pillow in hopes of feeling the Tooth-Fairy come snag it.



Hope the Tooth-Fairy can find that little thing!



We should have known Drue wouldn't be able to sleep in her own bed all night long.  She does well most every night of the year.  There are the occassional nights when she will hop in bed with us, usually about 5 am just as Daddy is getting ready to leave for work. 

However, without fail, Ryan and I can guarantee there will be a little girl in bed with us on THREE NIGHTS each year...

          1.  The night Santa comes,

          2.  The night the Easter Bunny comes, and now...

          3.  The night the Tooth-Fairy comes!

She has mentioned this on the eve of both Christmas and Easter.  When you think about it, it is kind of freaky.  A bearded old man who eats your cookies, a big fluffy bunny hiding eggs and a flying, tooth stealin' fairy coming into your house while you sleep.  I'd be in my mom's bed, too! 

Sis woke up in our bed, ran to her room and was tickled to find $3 and silver FAIRY DUST under her pillow!  We think she must have got extra money because she had to wait so long for the Tooth-Fairy to visit! At least we know she knows where to find us when more Luiken teeth fall out! (Kids' teeth, preferably!)



Look at all that fairy dust!



 Drue even found fairy dust on her little cheeks when she looked in the mirror that morning.  I think the Tooth-Fairy was looking for any other loose teeth...or maybe she was making sure the tooth really belonged to DD?

The next night I fell asleep with DD in her bed and woke up with all sorts of silver fairy dust on my face the next morning. I should have looked in the mirror BEFORE taking kids to school! yikes! 

I'm quite certain the Tooth-Fairy will be visiting our house often over the next few years...

Wonder what color of dust she'll use next???

Guesses Anyone?

Last week, in an attempt to break up a yelling/pinching/chasing/grabbing match between the two youngest humans in our house, I came up with a brilliant idea.

"Hey!  Let's each guess the date of the first snowfall!"

"Whoever predicts closest...gets to pick a restaurant we will eat supper at that week!"

I can't lose.

Told you it was brilliant!

Wordless Wednesday (ok, not really)

Ugh.  I've got another long list of things to blog about.  I have a feeling when it gets cold and snowy, I'll be a better blogger.  What else will I want to do?! I still haven't posted about Dig's birthday, the tooth-fairy, my farming debut, our chickens, soccer, the latest funny sayings/ happenings, the kids' new library in the toyroom, Halloween and now, school conferences.  Yikes. 

Ok, I'm feeling guilty.  Until I muster up the time to post for 'real,' enjoy this picture of the kids before trick-or-treating...and stay tuned for more! ...... eventually.  =)

Dig the Iowa Hawkeye & DD the Vet

(with her baby Sam, who also went trick-or-treating!)

Karate Kid

This summer, Lane took part in a one week Karate Kid Camp sponsored by Rising Sun Karate He loved every minute of it!  The kids learned kicks, punches and blocks and then did some Samurai Sword fighting with foam swords.  Can you imagine how cool that was for our then five year-old!? 

DD wasn't so sure.  "Oh great! Just what I need.  A brother who knows how to fight!" 

Lane worked very hard and toward the end of the week he was officially awarded his white belt.  He was hooked.  We went the very next week and registered him for Karate classes in Ackley and we've been going every Monday since. 



Receiving his white belt





When kicking/punching/blocking or when Sensei asks something of them,
the students have to yell "OUS!" which translates to
 "yes, I understand and will try." 





Lane sword fighting with Sensei


Sensei Fuller is so great with kids.  She is strict, but fun and Lane just can't get enough.  He practices at home and remembers what he has learned during the week which has helped him move from white belt, to white with yellow stripe which also meant moving up to a different class time.  A couple weeks ago Sensei awarded him with a red stripe on his belt because he is always such a good listener and works very hard during class.  It made his day because not everyone, in fact, only one other person received one. 




Outside the dojo.  No socks and remember to bow!


This past Monday night, Lane tested for and was promoted to YELLOW BELT! He's moving right along and is already hoping to some day be a black belt in Karate.  He loves looking at all of Uncle Steve's Tae Kwon Do belts.  Ya' know...because they're so colorful! 




Inside the dojo.  We parents have a great viewing area outside the room.





Practicing blocks with Sempei (senior student/helper) Teresa.






Practicing kicks!

 



Preparing for his favorite kick, so far...





the ROUND-HOUSE!!


Sensei says Lane is very dedicated and works hard during class.  You should hear how hard he smacks the kick bags! Yowza!! We are so proud of him and love that he and his sister each have an activity they enjoy so much. 

I also love that I have a personal body guard!

Waiting...

Well, it's no understatement to say we've been waiting a loooong time for this news at our house!


Drue was the LAST kid in her entire grade to lose a tooth! 

The Kindergarten bulletin board had a special section where when you lost a tooth, you wrote your name on a cut out of a tooth and stapled it up for all to see.  DD never got her name on that board. 

First-grade had a bag for each month and you got to put a cut out of a tooth with your name on it in each bag/month that you lost a tooth.  Some kids lost several.  DD...not a single one.

Finally, today, DD lost her first tooth.  Guess what?  Second-grade does nothing special for munchkins who lose teeth, because, surely they've all lost one by now!  Bummer.  But that won't damper the excitement around here!

Really the tooth had only been noticeably loose for a couple of days.  Drue's been messing with it and today she was just giddy thinking it could be soon that she'd have a gaping whole in her little mouth!  She had just asked me, "when will it start bleeding?"  When she took the Kleenex away and noticed some blood.  Panic took over and she started jumping up and down crying. She was scared.  I grabbed her and rocked her in the chair for a moment and she cried, "I'm not ready Mom, I'm just not ready." 

I couldn't stop laughing, but felt sad for her...and me.  My baby girl is growing up.  We rocked a few minutes and I finally told her to "take that Kleenex out of your mouth, it's going to be stuck to your lip and I'm sure you're tooth has stopped bleeding."  She looked at the Kleenex, I couldn't see the tooth in her mouth, but figured it was just wiggled so I couldn't.  I told her to look at me and I just screamed! NO TOOTH!  She, of course, didn't believe me so she ran to the bathroom to check.  Nope! No tooth!  But where was it?! She found it in the Kleenex, perfectly clean and perfectly hollow.  You should have heard the screaming and shouting! 

She yelled, "Call 'em! Call 'em!!" 

"Call Who?"

"Everybody"

She called her Daddy who was working in the field, Nanny (who DD is telling everyone, "was so excited to get over here, she didn't even say Ubba at the end of the call!") She called MiMi (who DD especially liked to wiggle her tooth in front of because she could give MiMi the hee-bee-gee-bees!) She called Pa and Uncle Shawn and KK and texted all of her other aunts & uncles to share her very exciting...and very long awaited news!!

Guess I should probably call the Tooth-Fairy, too!

Wordless Wednesday

Fall Family Fun

After the week we had...we needed to get out of the house!

The weather was perfect so after church and brunch, we headed to the corn maze.  We hadn't been for a couple of years, it sure was different with older kids!  Ryan and I had to keep reminding them to "slow down!"  We were in the maze for about an hour and didn't even find all 5 check in points! There were also a lot of other fun things to do at the farm. Lane loved the basketball court in the barn and DD loved the horses.  Lane started getting tired so we decided to go to a pumpkin farm nearby to pick out our pumpkins because I knew they had a variety I like to decorate with.

Time for a little flash back...

Same place, 2 years ago.

Notice how short the corn is, this was 2009, the year of the hail storm.

Now notice how short my little people were!  We thought they were so big. 

 Now look at 'em!

Much taller corn...much taller little people!  =)

Fresh air, blue skies, warm sun, pumpkins and a corn maze made for perfect Fall family fun!

What a Week!

Phew! I am so glad last week is over. 

It started last weekend, Dig was coughing a little, nothing crazy.  He played his soccer game, went to Mimi's to play with cousins all afternoon and about 8 pm he hit a wall.  All of a sudden he slowed down, sat on my lap and said, "I'm tired."  SO not like him.  I looked at Ryan and said, "we better go so we don't get anyone sick!" We were there to meet our new niece, Mara and didn't want any of the 5 cousins getting sick!  We were packed up and on our way in a few minutes. 

Sunday Dig had a fever and a croupy cough.  An early morning scare on Monday sent us right to the doctor.  Dig was needing to cough but couldn't get a breath.  Add mucous in his throat, the feeling that he needed to throw up and a bloody nose all in about three minutes and we were both shaking and scared.  The doctor tested him for influenza.  Thankfully, that came back negative, but Bubs was put on a nebulizer and steroid for the entire week.  I could see an improvement with the first nebulizer treatment.  He took his icky medicine like a champ and never complained while taking his breathing treatment.  He watched Karate Kid from Uncle Steve and 3 Ninjas from Uncle Shawn.  He ate lots of popsicles and drank lots of Gatorade.  He was bummed he had to miss the entire week of Kindergarten, Karate, soccer practice and a soccer game. All very important things to this six year old!  We got a new workbook to do while he was home and practiced addition flash cards.  He also talked Nanny into buying him some new markers that kept him busy one entire day! 

such a brave boy!

He tried spelling his name with the 'smoke'

Monday night we thought Ryan was coming down with whatever it was Lane had.  Instead he had the stomach flu.  Perfect.  There's nothing I hate more than the stomach flu.  Ryan worked Tuesday morning but had to stay home the afternoon and Wednesday morning.  He scheduled a doctors appointment for Wednesday afternoon in hopes of getting some magic shot to get him over the hump of terrible nausea/ vomiting.  No such luck. Instead, they sent him to Waterloo to get a CAT scan at 4:00, thinking perhaps he was needing and apendectomy because his white blood count was so high.  After two hours of drinking a huge cup of disgusting liquid for the test (still don't know how he kept that down!) we were transferred to the ER so he could receive IV fluids. Ended up it was just a terrible bout of the stomach flu. 8 hours in the hospital and we were both exhausted. 

Thankfully, we're all healthy again and were able to have a fun family Sunday at a corn maze then at a pumpkin farm.  Just what we needed. 

P.S. We also all got our flu shots!  =)

Being Fair

Because I'm that kind of mom.
Because I was feeling kind of guilty when I looked at past blog posts.
Because she's so stinkin' beautiful.
Because we love her so.
Because you haven't seen them.
Because I need to Keep it Fair...

Some pictures of My DD.

Imagine

I love that teachers have the kids journal.  I will never part with any of our kids' journals. IMAGINE how much fun and all the laughs we'll have years from now, opening up these adorable, innocent, yet very honest journals.  DD has one from every month of both Kindergarten and First-grade.  Now that she's older...ya' know...a second grader, they only journal weekly, but Lane Ryan brought home his very first journal yesterday.  I was so excited!

A mom always wonders what the child journals about.  Will the entry be about how much fun they had that weekend?  Will it be about how great of a mom she is ? {Remember?}  =) Or, could it possibly be a bit more embarrassing?  Recently, I was told by a certain Kindergartner in our home {who shall remain nameless} that he was going to journal about the mouse Dad caught in the basement.  Perfect.  Like I want people knowing we had a mouse.  Wait a minute...shucks.  Well, don't tell anyone.

IMAGINE my surprise when I opened Dig's journal and found THIS entry!

Now ... IMAGINE Ryan's beet red face!

What bigs lips we have! Or, that's some long distance kissing!

You just never know what will make the journal! 

Wordless Wednesday