Happy Halloween!

Emmy had the color orange for show and share today.  She wore the scarf her Aunty Amber gave to her for the occasion.  The kids can't dress up in costume for school but they get to dress up when I take them trick or treating tonight.  I'm sure there will be more pictures to come.

Cowboy Bobby lassos up some trouble

My little cowboy now lassos me up using whatever he can get that resembles a rope.  He ties it around my leg and then attempts to drag me around the house yelling, "Yee Haw, come on now, I'm bringing you in!"  Sometimes he would call me a horse or a cow.  It was funny for a while but this game literally went on from morning until evening last weekend.

My two favorite people

Sometimes my two favorite people really love each other...in fact, most of the time they really love and take care of each other.  When Bobby visits the Pre-K classroom I always find him sitting by Emmy or in her lap or see her giving him kisses.  Many times when I give Bobby a treat he asks for one to give Emmy.  Yes, they do fight over toys and have a difficult time sharing every once in a while but they also are good to each other which makes this mom so happy.

Halloween show

Emmy sang 15 songs in the Halloween show as describe in a previous post.  Here are some pictures of her signing her heart out (with actions) at the show.

I took a pictures across the room of two of Emmy's fans in the audience.

Emmy took a picture with her two best friends - Olivia Charles (also dressed as Rapunzel) and ShayCee as Dorothy.

Pumpkin time!

The family pumpkin carving day went fairly well.  Dad directed his helpers and small and large pumpkins were carved and colored on to display on our front step.

Emerson earns her wings

My mom sent a picture of Emmy on the flight home to Bismarck.  She earned her wings and was pretty proud to wear that honor.

Bobby has some fun being the only child this past weekend

This past week/weekend while Emmy was gone I got to spend some extra time with my favorite little man.  I made him his favorite meals (pancakes, cresent roll hot dogs and tacos) and I let him decide each day what we would do for fun.  Robb came home from hunting late Saturday and this was the day that Bobby decided he wanted to go to Leaping Lizards.  He had a wild time there running around and playing.  He is getting big so fast but is such a nice little person.  At SUnday school he has become everyone's favorite and says hello to all the kids, teachers.  He comes with my class to music for the first 10-15 minutes before he heads into church with dad or goes to the daycare.  He sings and is the only kid that really dances his heart out for the entire time. After the man who leads music finishes his songs and guitar playing with his son who is about 10 years old, Bobby always goes up to give them a hug and tell them "Thanks for the music guys!"  It is about the sweetest thing and I usually don't have to remind him and certainly don't need to convince him that he should thank them.  I'm so proud of how kind and sweet Bobby is.....I hope we can always convince him that this is the best way to be!

chopsticks

Chicago part 2

 My mom has been sending pictures of their trip and it sure looks like Emerson is having a great time. She asked my mom this morning as they got into the cab to ride to the airport for their flight home, "Have I been a good girl on this trip so I can come back again grandma?"  My mom told me that she's been the best and has been very flexible to eat, sleep and go with the flow as they kept up with a very busy family of Untersehers in Chicago.  Next time I want to go!  Emmy wanted to use chopsticks to eat her food at Penny's when they went there.  I remember so well when she was a year and a half eating with her hands and making a huge mess at Penny's when she, my mom and I went to Chicago a few summers ago.....now she is big girl using chopsticks. 

She enjoyed Starbucks almost every morning and Grandma got her a pumpkin cookies to eat which was her favorite thing to eat there. 

Emmy dressed up like a cowgirl cheerleader (I guess because she carried Pom Poms) and they played dress up and then went out for some early trick or treating.  I think she would have stayed there another week but her family (and even little Bobby) really missed her.  Her Sunday school teacher gave me an extra project for her to work on since she missed class.  Bobby asked about her often although I think he really enjoyed getting his parents all to himself!

Emmy is having so much fun in Chicago

Grandma Launa has been giving me reports about Emmy's time in Chicago.  She has been busy with her cousins and their hectic hockey schedule.  She has loved every minute so far of watching their games and my mom even sent me pictures of her all dressed up in hockey gear.  She ate pizza and was a good girl on the flights down there and has been sleeping with her cousin Kate and just overall enjoying every minute of being with her older cousins.  They have been so great to her and it is fun for me to hear all about their stories.

Cowboy Bobby is a busy little outlaw

I don't know how I manage to ever get anything done at home with a little Cowboy name Bobby who likes to 'lasso' my leg with anything that remotely resembles a rope......it was pretty tough getting myself and my cowboy ready this morning with my right leg being tied up. We've been enjoying our solo time together with Emmy/Grandma in Chicago and Dad hunting.  I made him his favorite cresent roll hot dogs last night per request.  He doesn't have to share toys or watch "Winx fairies" on TV since his sister is gone but he sure asks about Emmy and Daddy since they've left.

Halloween Show at EMDC

Emerson and Bobby's daycare/preschool put on a Halloween show this year for the parents.  I took a lot of pictures of Emerson dressed as Rapunzel and singing and acting with her class.  She remembered all 15 songs and was really happy to perform.  Bobby was a little too young this year and so  he stayed in the audience dressed as a cowboy.  It was a busy night for our little performer as she had dance class as well as the Halloween show.  She enjoyed it all and I didn't eat dinner until 8:30 since I was busy running around taking her everywhere!

Our little dancer/puppy

Emmy started dance again and was informed last night that she will be playing the role of a puppy at the Xmas show.  She started rehearsing for her role as puppy and seems to be really into it!

Fall Break means more time with my favorite people

I got two full days off from work this past week and I enjoyed every minute of it with the kids.  The first day we went to the 'Leaping Lizards' indoor playground.  There were inflatables to jump around in, air hockey, and this teeter totter plane.  Bobby played in the kitchen and made sure that he got the most turns at driving the teeter totter plane.  He and Emmy played air hockey pretty well together and I had to retrieve a few of the pucks that would get stuck where they couldn't reach.  They really are great friends and had such a great time there.  Bobby found an inflated horse that he would pretend to ride, get bucked off of and then get right back on again.  Some of the big kids would help him climb to the top of the inflated slide so he could keep up with the older kids there who play hard like he does.

Videos of Mason's party fun

Mason's 5th Birthday party

The kids had an awesome time at Mason's 5th birthday party!  The party was at the party pit and Bobby has been party planning ideas to me about his future birthday part ever since Mason had his party this weekend.  The kids are afraid of nothing and were going full speed down the slide and running around the gym.

More stats from the race

Portland half marathon!

I placed in the Portland half. It was a fun race/course and it feels great to be able to do well in these things still.  I actually enjoyed this race and came close to a PR.  I did win an award and the best thing about the day was getting to fly home to the kids who missed me!

While mom's away

Robb sent me pictures periodically while I was in Portland for the ELC conference and doing site visits for work.  I tried not to judge or micro-manage from home as he sent me pictures of the kids wearing pajamas most of the day along with outdoor gear or cowboy boots in the house.  They looked cute, well fed, clean and that's all that matters.  All in all he did an excellent job taking care of them in my absence and they hardly missed me at all I think.  Grandparents helped out a lot both taking the kids overnight for a night to give dad a break.  He somehow managed to get two nights out with friends while I was away and so I think he did a pretty good job of balancing it all!  A big thanks to my family who make it possible for me to be away and not worry about my little Eckerts.  I did think about them often and miss them too much though.