Merry 1st Christmas this year

Emmy and I are mermaids for Christmas thanks to Grandma Launa!

My face looked like Bobby's did when he opened this gift from his grandparents Moldenhauer.....that present may serve to be trouble!

 Story time with Santa at zoo.  Bobby reminded Santa that he had written a letter to him already detailing what he had asked for and that he was officially on the nice list.

Limo ride to look at Christmas lights.  It was REALLY cold this year but we sure had fun together.  We are grateful that Grandpa Kelly and Grandma Launa can make this experience happen again this year.  The kids had a great time.

Christmas Program

Emmy and Bobby had a Christmas program last Sunday and all their cousins and grandparents came!  Bobby was a shepherd and Emmy was honored to play Mary.  We were so proud to see the kids up there enjoying their retelling of the Christmas story of Jesus.

Snow days and hockey accomplishments

We've had three official snow days where school was cancelled in the past two weeks.  Blizzards have become the norm here.  The kids have loved the time off to play in the snow but for adults this meant a lot of headaches planning for child care, work make up, etc.

The kids finally got to find out that they are going on a Disney Cruise. They watched the videos and were so excited to see what is in store for them soon.

We had to celebrate with TCBY (Bobby's choice) last weekend because it was a special hockey game.  BOBBY SCORED HIS FIRST EVER GOAL!  Emmy scored THREE goals.  It was an exciting game.

Bobby got to celebrate his friend Ethan Jahner's birthday party with some fun games.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Bobby has been busy drawing, writing and creating projects.  This is his latest creation and since it was a star (Mommy's favorite shape) I had to take a picture.

 We did our annual shopping trip for ornaments.  Emmy picked out Draculora and Bobby chose a cupcake that said "Happy Birthday Jesus!" and he told me this was because this is the real reason we celebrate at Christmastime and what the holiday is truly about.  "without Jesus, we'd all be dead!" he told me.  I was so proud of him for understanding this important concept.

 We took a trip to the zoo to enjoy the weather before the first winter blizzard was to hit Bismarck.  We watched a Golden Eagle animal training and the kids asked great questions.  Then we walked around and looked at everything else the zoo has to offer.  The kids are still so into learning about animals and Emmy swears that she needs to be a vet or animal trainer for her career.

We participated in the hanging of the greens this past weekend at church.  The kids brought the poinsettias up to the front of the church.  I got to help this weekend with Sunday school and so I witnessed the kids doing this first hand.  It is always a fun time.

Girl time and Boy time

 Emmy told me she was in real need of some time with me and I love spending one on one time with her as well.  We decided manicures were in order with a trip to starbucks on the way home (we brought Bobby home a treat too).  Bobby and Robb headed out to go bowling and finished up the night with a steak meal.  Bobby had at least 2 bites in his mouth at once.

Bobby told me he currently has aspirations of going to the White house someday and becoming President.  I can live there too since his wife will be Heather Lundeen's daughter Chloe and she likes me.

Parent teacher conferences - SUCCESS

Here is a video of Bobby reading.  Emmy writes him books and he then reads them now.  He loves to identify sight words and sound out other words.  He is excellent at math and we learned that he is doing math problems at a 1st grade level.  His teacher told us he is doing math skills and she hasn't even taught those skills yet!  She also scored him far above his age for reading, writing and other skills.  Overall he is a little smarty and we were very proud.  Emmy had an equally as good report.  She is reading at a 4th grade level and her teacher told us that she is going to challenge her and teach her at that level.  All of her other skills are above and are scoring at the end of the year marks similar to Bobby.  Essentially Bobby and Emmy are scoring with end of the year testing scores.  Robb and I left there glowing.  Emmy's teacher told us we could work on little things like how Emmy holds the pencil, how she demonstrates non verbals to losing games she plays with others (hmmmmm, sounds familiar...she doesn't like losing).  Bobby can work on sitting still and being in control of his busy body.  Those teachers really know our kids and gave us ideas on how we can work on those things but more importantly assured us that intelligence and learning are areas they are doing very well in.  We celebrated with a McDonald's dinner and they each earned 3 books they got to pick out at the Book Fair.

Trick of Treat and Hunting season

 

The parents had a fun Halloween party as a super couple and the kids enjoyed trick or treating again this year with their cousins dressed as a cheerleader (Emmy) and Bobby and a transformer named Bumblebee.  Dad left for hunting season and we made a special morning trip to Starbucks.  It was a great past week!

Fort Lincoln and lunch with kids

 

We had such a great time at the Fort Lincoln Little Monsters hike.  It was about 2 miles and the path had scare monsters and ghosts, zombies walking around.  The kids didn't seem scared at all but I was a little nervous they might get nightmares from the scary people who were dressed as zombies.  We also walked through a haunted house and played carnival games.  We went with Sara Kotelnicki and her kids and the Lundeen family which made the fun even better. We followed it up with Orange Leaf frozen yogurt too so the entire day was fun.  I also helped out in church with the pre-K group which I love doing.  I got invited to some sleepovers from a few little ones and also got some make believe dinners made for me while there.  It was fun to see how Bobby and Emmy interact with others.  Bobby found one of the scavenger event items and while he stood up front showing it off his proud big sister was yelling out, "Great job Bobby, way to go!!"  She gave him some congratulation hugs as well.  Then our children's ministry leader, Tina, dropped her book and papers and Bobby rushed to help her pick it up.  I was proud of his chivalry!

Monday I surprised the kids at school for lunch.  I had made them (and me) cold lunches for school and then snuck in behind Bobby.  I tapped him on the shoulder and asked if I could sit by him at lunch.  He was so excited and I got lots of hugs, kisses and he kept his arm around me all through lunchtime.  I spent 15 minutes with him (that's all the time they get to eat) and then Emmy came in behind us and heard my voice, "Mommy?!?" she said.  She couldn't believe I was there and waved at me from her spot across the lunchroom while I said goodbye to Bobby. I could see her telling her friends that I was her mom.  We sat together and because Emmy is such a chatterbox she hardly ate any lunch before she and I had to go.  I helped her look for her missing mitten (it was in her pocket) and her missing hat (in her backpack) before I sent her off to the playground.  Emmy told me later at home it was the best lunch she'd ever had because I was there.  I loved every minute of it.

special breakfasts

Emmy got to go to Starbucks for breakfast with grandma and Bobby got donuts with dad.  I bought him this new dinosaur shirt he is very proud of.