Lately... (a bit of this and that)

Lately we've been in a very busy season of life.  Swimming lessons, soccer, piano lessons, speech therapy, church commitments - it all starts adding up.  Thankfully everything is winding down now in the next few weeks, and I'm really looking forward to taking a break over the summer.

On Friday was the kids' last swimming lesson.  Neither of them passed their level, but that's okay because that's what I was expecting (it was the first time for both of them in their levels).  Plus, I had registered them for these same levels for summer lessons (1 week, 45 minutes each day), so I was actually glad neither of them passed because then I'd have to try to re-register them in a different level.  They both did really well though, and I was very proud of how hard they worked.  This was Emmett's first time doing "real" swimming lessons (without a parent in the water) and aside from a few tears on the first day, he really enjoyed it.

Yesterday Annika really got the hang of riding her bike with two wheels.  We'd been practicing for a week, but it wasn't until yesterday that it really "clicked."  She still has a few issues with steering and stopping (and starting on her own), but she's pretty much got it figured out.  Very proud of her, since it wasn't that long ago (just after we bought her new bike) that she was quite scared of riding it, even with the training wheels on. 

Father's Day this morning.  We had a pretty low-key day, as we had celebrated with my family on Friday night and with Carey's family yesterday.

Last week in church the children's feature was about Psalm 23 (as was the sermon) and it was generously promised to the kids that if they could memorize all of Psalm 23, they would receive $5.  Annika worked very hard all week, and she was so excited to receive her $5 this morning.  I was quite impressed with how quickly she was able to memorize it all (I typed it out and added a few pictures to help with word associations), so now we need to find something to work on next.  It was good practice for me too - it's been a long time since I've memorized Bible verses and even the ones I learned as a kid (like Psalm 23) have gotten a bit foggy.  It's definitely something I want us to keep doing as a family.

"Weekend" getaway

Last year on the May long weekend we went down to the States for a night, so this year we figured we would attempt going for 2 nights.  Since Annika didn't have school on Friday, Carey took the day off and Emmett played hooky from preschool and we went down on Thursday night already.  We came back yesterday, so we missed all the long weekend traffic (I think we spent less than 5 minutes at the border going down, and maybe about 15-20 minutes coming back).  It was a good little break.

We ate lots of yummy food...

Went swimming in the pool 3 times...

Relaxed...

Ate more yummy food and had fun drinks (both kids requested a pink umbrella for their drinks)...

Had some good "family quality time"...

Had fun with glow sticks...

Found a park to fly the kids' new kites (bought at Menards - what a funny store that is)...

And slept!!

Phoenix trip photo book

Our trip to Phoenix!  Finally finished the photo book.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Create your own personalized photo books at Shutterfly.com.

I'm back

It's been quiet around here lately because we've been away on vacation.  We were in Phoenix from Feb 21 - Mar 4.  It was a good vacation - the weather was gorgeous, we did lots of fun things, and even spent some time relaxing.  In the past I've posted pictures here on the blog with a summary of our vacations and also posted a link to the Shutterfly photo book that I make of each vacation, however this time I think I will just post a link to the photo book when it's complete.  I just don't have the time to go through all my photos twice (I have about 900 to go through!), so I figured I could save time and just do it once.  So stay tuned for the photo book.

In the meantime, these are 2 of my favorite photos from our last day there.  The kids were picking the biggest grapefruits I've ever seen (I told Annika to make an "I can't believe how huge this is" face - love it).

On a different note - yesterday was my 3 year "blogoversary" (that is, 3 years since I started blogging).  Happy blogoversary to me!  Thanks to everyone who has been reading over the past 3 years. :)

Go fish

Family game night this evening. It's really neat that Emmett is getting old enough to start participating, and not just messing everything up.

One more Christmas gathering...

...and we can't wait for the food!!!!

Just kidding - we were doing "shrinky dinks" with the kids after supper and they loved watching them shrink (it is pretty cool). 

Christmas

A glimpse at our Christmas...

Emmett's first time on his skates, at our family gathering on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning, putting the star on the top of the tree.

Opening presents at home - can you guess what Emmett got? ;)

 

Christmas brunch at my parents' place.

Getting ready to open presents at my in-laws' place.

Carey's dad built this awesome workbench for Emmett.

Hard at work decorating a gingerbread train.

Toys for kids, both big and small. :)

We had a great Christmas, and it wasn't even too busy.  In the past it's felt like just "go go go", but this year we've had a little more time to relax and play, which is nice.  Hope you all had a merry Christmas too!

Lights

This morning in church my parents did the advent reading and the kids helped lighting the candles (and they didn't burn the church down!).

Then this evening we continued our tradition of going to see the Winter Wonderland lights display.  We've gone every year since Emmett was born, and the kids love it.  Annika's favorite part was the hearts, and Emmett liked the train.  I liked the mini-donuts. ;)

Christmas pancakes

These have a become a tradition at our place. The pan is kind of finicky and half the time they get a little burnt, but the kids really love them. I love that they've become a tradition for us. When we were first married, and even the first year or two with Annika, we didn't really have any traditions that were our own (just traditions with our families, etc). Over the past few years we've been accumulating our own traditions and it makes Christmas feel a little more special.

Gingerbread houses

Just a few of the masterpieces done today at our annual family gingerbread house decorating event.

Home movies

Popped some popcorn and watched home movies with the kids this evening. Emmett's favorite is the one of our old house being torn down.

Family pictures

Last week we had some family photos done, and I absolutely love them. It always seems like a bit of a hassle to do family pictures (what to wear, where to go, the cost of the photographer, will the weather cooperate, will the kids cooperate, etc) but it's totally worth it.  I actually have a few nice photos of Emmett now!! (Some of you on FB or Instagram will have seen his terrible school photo proofs :P).  Sorry for tons and tons of pictures, but I just had to share them.  How am I going to pick only one or two to put on the Christmas card??