Nate's Birthday

Birthday decorations for Nate's birthday. He got a Spiderman theme. :)
Caleb is excited about opening presents!
Watching Dad open his presents
Yummy cake

This past Saturday, Nate turned 31! He had to work all day and got home after 6:30. We got to eat some pizza and cake together though. Nate's company started the outage so he'll be working more for the next month. I am so grateful for Nate. He is such a hard worker and always helps around the house too. I am so impressed with his abilities to plan and build/fix things. He is a wonderful husband and father. We love you very much, Nate!

In other news, Isaac had his 3 year check-up. He is 35 lbs and 38 inches. He is 2 inches shorter and 5 lbs lighter than Caleb was at this age. :) It was fun watching him do the vision test. The nurse was asking him to identify shapes. He knew most of them, but got bored quickly with the task. He got one shot which turned red and swelled up a little. Otherwise he got a clean bill of health!

Julia had her 18 month check-up. She is 25 lbs and 32 inches. For a little comparison, Isaac was 28 lbs and 33 inches at this age. The doctor is really pleased with Julia's development. She is right on track and is quite verbal. We thank God for how well Julia is doing!

My Dad has surgery tomorrow morning at U of M for prostate cancer. I'm feeling nervous tonight, but overall I haven't been feeling too worried about it. I think it's because it's only surgery and not radiation or chemo too. We're praying that the surgery goes well and that Dad's recovery goes smoothly.

Happy 6th Birthday!

Opening his bow and arrow present (the arrows are nerf-tipped, no worries)
Steph, Julia, Jenn and Ryan (by the way- they are expecting a baby in April!!!!)
Tim and Jenny
Caleb, Isaac and Cardale with the Superman birthday cake
Caleb and Nate have matching hats now! Go Packers!
The Candy Cottage cake for school
Isaac came up with this fort by himself
Ahh, they are playing nicely- take a picture!

Caleb turned 6 years old yesterday! After church we had a little party for him. My parents, siblings, and the Winebrenner's came over. Caleb wanted pizza for his birthday meal, so we had pizza for our Sunday dinner. :) The adults enjoyed chatting and watching some football. The kids had fun playing with Cardale. It is so cute to watch the boys play together. This past Saturday marked the one year point since Cardale moved out of our house. Cardale is doing so great. Ryan and Jenn are perfect parents for him. And, they are expecting a baby in April! God is good! I made Superman cake for Caleb this year. It doesn't look like the traditional Superman logo because I based this one off a shirt that Caleb loved to wear. He likes the design, but decided he doesn't like the chocolate frosting on it that he requested. :) Caleb celebrated his birthday with his classmates today. I have a "Birthday Cakes for Kids" book and Caleb asked me to make the Candy Cottage Cake. It was an easy cake to decorate and it turned out cute. Caleb's classmates were excited to see candy all over the cake! He has 19 kids in his class, so the cake was polished off. I enjoyed meeting Caleb's classmates for the first time. They are cute kids, but I'm glad Mrs. Carey is the teacher and not me. ;)

We are so proud of Caleb. He has matured in so many ways. He loves to learn and ask questions. He is always paying attention to things around him and taking it in. (A good reminder to watch how I act!) He loves having us read to him. We also joke that he has secretly learned to read, but doesn't want us to know. He started reading last year in Young 5's, but mostly 3 letter words, etc. The past couple of weeks we have noticed him mouthing words in his books and has read some more difficult words to us. We sometimes look at each other and say, "How does he know that word?!" He does so well in school. He has a memory verse every week now and memorizes it easily. We're happy that he enjoys learning so much!

Caleb is also an awesome big brother. He and Isaac really hit it off this summer. They played so well together that I often found myself saying, "Enjoy it now, it won't last." :) Caleb also gained a sister this past year. He is great with Julia and still likes to pet her hair sometimes. :) If Julia is upset when there is a babysitter here, she'll often go to Caleb for comfort. So cute.

I pulled out a home video today of when Caleb was a newborn. My first thought was, "I looked horrible after giving birth!" I remember feeling horrible too. :) My next thought was, "How has 6 years gone by?" They have been 6 amazing years and we thank God for the gift of Caleb!

The End of Summer

Overlooking Lake Michigan
Camping at Hoffmaster State Park
Finger-painting with pudding
Real finger-painting
Visiting the St. Joe Children's Museum
First day of kindergarten!

We had a nice end to this summer. Nate and the boys had a "boys only" camping trip. And I said, "woo-hoo!" They went to Hoffmaster State Park near Grand Haven. It is probably our favorite campground now. The sites are large, shady, there are hiking trails and of course the lake. Julia and I visited the campsite for part of a day. I enjoyed getting some things done around the house while they were gone.

One afternoon the boys wanted to finger-paint. Julia wants to be involved in whatever the boys are doing! I gave her some pudding to eat, I mean paint with. She did enjoy playing with the pudding for a couple minutes, but then she just started flinging it. And cleaning up the pudding was quite the process too. I don't think we'll do the pudding thing very often! I also took the kids to a local children's museum. I am always proud of myself when I do big outings like this by myself. Thankfully this museum isn't huge, so it's a little easier to keep an eye on them when they go 3 different directions. Unfortunately the museum didn't have a place for us to eat our packed lunch. But, the staff let us eat at their table in their kitchen- very nice of them.

I wanted to share a couple funny sayings from Isaac recently. The kids had balloons and Julia's accidentally floated away. The boys were a little upset that the balloon was floating away. I said that maybe someone flying in an airplane will see the balloon. Isaac then said, "Maybe Jesus will catch it." So cute. Another time I took the kids for a quick mall trip. We don't go to malls very often. Anyway, the boys suddenly noticed the mannequins. Isaac asked, "Can I touch it?" I said yes. Caleb and Isaac then asked if the mannequins were real, etc. I explained that they were just pretend. Caleb then asked, "Did they cut off people's heads and then make them?" What??? I then carefully explained that the mannequins are made in a factory and they are not real. The boys still stared at them as we walked thru the store. :) The other night Isaac said,"Why did the chicken cross the road?" His answer, "Because he had to go poop." Nate and I discourage bathroom talk, especially at the table, but we lost it. We were laughing so hard. The boys are in the stage that anything related to the bathroom is funny. How long until boys grow out of this stage, ever?

Julia is testing our boundaries these days. She just does things over and over that she isn't supposed to do. Gets a little tiring! We are doing time-ins with her. Where she has to sit still next to us for a minute. She also doesn't play with toys, which is frustrating. She prefers to follow us or the boys around. We're trying to weed out our toys so it isn't overwhelming and find toys that interest her. She does like to carry my purse or other bags around and say, "bye!"- very cute. For a long time Julia went to bed easily. The past two months have been difficult for her. She cries, talks, yells- just doesn't fall asleep easily. We tried going up every 5 minutes to pat her and say goodnight. (I read in an adoption book to try that technique when kids have sleep issues.) We also wake her up from her nap by 3:30 pm. For the past couple of weeks, she's been asking for water so we were giving her a drink and taking the cup away. She seemed kind of stressed about the water. So, we are now giving her a sippy cup with a little water in it and it seems to be working! She still doesn't fall asleep quickly, but she's just jabbering in her bed and not upset. I guess she just feels secure that the water is available if she wants it? Hopefully it continues to work! She is very social these days and loves to say "hi and bye" to anyone who passes by.

Caleb started kindergarten today! He was more nervous than I expected him to be. He is familiar with this teacher as his Young 5's class spent afternoons with the kindergarten class last year. Caleb told me that he was nervous about kindergarten because they do hard work. I kept reminding him that his teacher will help him and that he will do great. This week he has half days and then does normal full days starting next week. His class has 18 kids! We were shocked to hear that. He had 7 kids in his Young 5's class. I think Caleb thrives better in a smaller class, but this will be a good experience for him. He was miffed today because some girl brought pretzels for the whole class so he couldn't eat his own snack. :) I was excited to read that he will be memorizing the ABC's Bible verses. I learned those in kindergarten! You know, A- "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23" B- "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Acts 16:31," etc. I think this teacher will stretch Caleb, but he'll also enjoy kindergarten and learn alot. I still remember how my kindergarten teacher cut off my pencil eraser so that I couldn't erase my mistakes. Very upsetting for a young perfectionist. :) We are excited to see how Caleb grows this year!