Sara climbs the rope

This fall I changed gyms that Sara was doing gymnastics at.  She has loved her new gym and especially her new teacher.  Her teacher is a little tougher on them and Sara has totally responded positively to that.  They do a lot of strengthening things throughout the class and Sara is getting really strong.  I'll be in the kitchen and she'll come boost herself up on the counter and start doing dips.  She's done 30 in a row.  It cracks me up.  She also is constantly doing cartwheels and handstands and round offs all over the house.  She has kicked each of us at least once and she can't stop doing it.  It cracks me up.  I love seeing her so happy with it.  They climb the rope each day in gymnastics and the first day she didn't make it to the top.  The second day I could tell from the first second that she touched the rope that she was determined to make it to the top.  She was climbing with some serious enthusiasm.  She did it!  She climbed all the way up!  They have these bells all over the gym and whenever someone does something for the first time that they've been working on, they get to ring the bell and the whole gym claps for them.  She got to ring the bell!  She was so excited.  I took this video during a different class so Jerry could see it.  I am so proud of her determination!

Videos of Abby

Abby keeps us laughing and oohing and ahhing over how cute she is.  We love this little munchkin!

 

 



Abby loves "reading" books.  She'll read them to me, Matt, her baby doll, basically anyone who will sit down and listen to her.  I love it!

 

 

We got Abby these animal magnets for her birthday.  She loves them.  She loves to teach her baby doll all the sounds the animals make.  It's pretty cute.  I love that she has something to do while I'm working in the kitchen.  It all works out pretty good!
 

Look who's two!

I can't believe how quickly the past two years have gone by!  It is crazy to think that Abby is already two years old.  She is definitely not a baby anymore and really wants to be doing whatever the older kids are doing.  Most of the time she can join in in some way or another.  A lot of the time they aren't thrilled that she is joining in, but usually they tolerate it well enough.

 

We love our hammock and as soon as Abby sees someone laying in it, she want's to join in.

She has the worst eating habits of any child of mine.  She has learned where all the yummy snacks are and would prefer to eat them all day long.  I gave her a graham cracker one day and pretty soon she came running up to me, so proud of herself, because she had gotten the entire package and taken a bite out of the top of them all.



The baby comes with us everywhere.  Everywhere.  Usually in the stroller.  It makes grocery shopping a lot more fun and a whole lot longer.

 

If we are running a series of errands, the baby gets in and out of the car with us too.  Oh, that really makes me happy!  She even came to Chick Fil A with us one day.

 

Right after Jerry and I got married, I nannied these two little girls on my days off of work.  They had a wagon and every day I would pull them to the park in the wagon.  It was so fun and I really wanted one for my kids.  Finally, I got one for Abby and I love it.  She tolerates it, but I love it!

We went on a long walk to playgroup one day.  She almost fell asleep in it.  I made her get out and help me pull it for a bit to keep her awake.

It's really useful on the days that we watch Beckett.  She gets mad when he gets to ride in the stroller and she has to walk.  The wagon smoothes it all over.

The day of her birthday was a really warm day so we decided to take one more paddle boarding adventure.  I would have felt guilty if she didn't have so much fun playing in the sand and water.

We found a really great deal on this paddle board, so it's mine!!  YAY!!  I was so excited. I love it.  It's a little narrower than the ones we've rented so it was easier for the kids to control.  Matt had a great time riding it. 

Again, if Abby weren't so happy, I'd have felt bad.  But she was happy and I didn't feel bad.  Win, win, right?

 We finished off the day with some yummy cake and candles and singing.  Abby was so happy and with all the birthdays lately, she knew just how to blow out the candles.

 

 

At two Abby is an adventure.  She can be the sweetest of angels or one of the meanest little girls out there.  She loves to hit and yell when she doesn't get her way or when her siblings do something she doesn't like.  She is not afraid to let us know when she's not happy with us and can often be heard yelling, "No! Mine!"  She still loves to snuggle, though, and so all it takes is a big hug and snuggle from her and we can't help but forgive her.  She had about one month of sleeping really really great.  I thought we were done with the habit of waking up every night and screaming and ending up in bed with us.  But just as quickly as she stopped the habit, she started up again.  I was feeling really determined to be tough with her and so I let her cry it out.  That had worked a month earlier.  It did not work well this time around.  She cried for THREE HOURS solid one night.  I finally got up to go running and just put he in bed with Jerry.  Since then I've just thrown in the towel.  She starts out the night in her bed, but ends up in our bed every night at some point.  This will probably continue until she's at least 16.

 

She loves to do everything by herself including climbing in the car, going up and down stairs, anything that takes extra time.  She is not speaking a ton and although her doctor isn't concerned yet, he did give me the number for early intervention.  I haven't called yet.  We are trying to get her to make actual letter sounds before we give her what she's asking for.  She is also learning sign language so one way or another we make her attempt the word.  I'm not too worried.  This is Abby we're talking about.  It will be done on her schedule!

 

Abby pretty much rules the house but we all love her and can't imagine our family without her!  Happy birthday, Abby!!

Jog a Thon

For the last few years, our elementary school has done a jog a thon for their yearly fundraiser.  I love it.  They used to participate in the wrapping paper and the food products and all that stuff.  I never got involved in those and barely bought anything because the schools only get to bring in between 25 and 40% of the money raised.  I think that's lame that the companies get to make so much money off of them. I feel that way about school pictures, too.  Anyway, I love the jog a thon because the school gets 100% of the money.  They've bought some awesome things with jog a thon money: tons of iPads, gym and playground equipment, school activities, etc.  I also like they do it during school hours, which I normally get annoyed at how many distractions they have during the school day, but I think physical activity is important, too, and it's fun.  The kids get prizes for how much money they bring in.  I've always sponsored my kids per lap and then given them extra so they get into a decent prize earning bracket. 

 

This year they showed off the prizes before the jog a thon and Sara, who is a sucker for any kind of commercial, fell in love with some magic mirror.  If you looked in it and touched your cheek then you would magically have makeup on.  Fabulous!  My first thought was, I do not want my 6 year admiring herself in a mirror and putting magic makeup on.  I mean, really!  And I know how the prizes are... and I know how Sara is... and the kicker is Sara demanded that I pay 50 dollars so she could have the chance of winning it!  What?!  That girl messed up on so many levels!  Without, putting too much thought in my response I said, "Ha!  I'm not paying 50 dollars for each of you just so you have the chance winning some mirror.  You should ask your uncles because they can't say no to cute little girls."  I actually thought of my brother, Rex, who is the biggest sucker for cute little girls!

 

That was the end of the conversation at the time and I really didn't think much more of it until Sunday night when Sara said, "Mom, can I really call my uncles?"  I relented and figured if she at least did some work in calling them and earned the money through that and running that it would be ok.  Kate also wanted to join in so we called all their uncles and aunts.  The responses were priceless.  I had them practice their speech and they sounded very professional on the phone.  They were very convincing and were shocked that everyone kept saying, "Yes!"  It was cute.  The kicker was when one uncle pledged five dollars/lap for Kate.  She was ecstatic!  I quickly texted him telling him to keep at 1 dollar.  Sara, who had just hung up with another uncle said, "Dang!  I need to call Uncle... back."  Hilarious!! 

 

They were very inspired with their pledges and had big plans to run super hard that day!

 

 Sara started off strong.  She tried to run the whole way, but she did walk a little bit.  They get to run for 20 minutes.  Each lap is a tenth of a mile.  She ran 17 laps!

 I've cursed all my kids with getting a super red face after exercising.  Sorry!

 

Matt was next.  He didn't care too much about it this year.  He was too cool for pledges and said, "The money is just for the little kids anyway.  I won't be here next year to use it."  I was proud of him for running even though he doesn't particularly like it.  He also ran 17 laps.

 

 Kate was the last to run.  She really wanted to run 20 laps.  She started off really well and I was proud of her.  I love watching her run!  She had to run right after she ate lunch and we had 3 days of record heat right at this time.  It was over 90 degrees when she was running.  She started off great, but soon the food and heat caught up to her and she got a bad sideache.  She was very disappointed and I felt really bad for her.  Even with all that though, she still ran 15 laps and I think that is really good!  Here's some video of her:

 

 

 

I think Abby and I should have earned some money for being at the school almost all day and having a fast lunch and late nap and standing in the heat.  It was actually really fun.  I brought a spray bottle and sprayed all the kids as they ran by.  It was so hot.  I was definitely the favorite.  My wrist was sore from spraying so much!

 

It was a fun day and the kids were excited to get their prizes.  Sara didn't get her mirror, but she got a jewelry making kit and some of the beads change color so she had a lot of fun making necklaces and playing with the color beads.  Kate got a diary that locks.  And Matt, who I paid enough for him to get in the midrange prize bracket came home with Jenga and we've had the most fun with that.  How have we made it this far in parenthood and not bought that game??  A huge success and Kate and Sara were flattered by all their aunts and uncles who sponsored them and sent them letters of congrats!



Another mash up

Kate sometimes gets in these project moods and she always turns to sewing projects.  Inspired by the clothes Grandma Johnson has made for her doll, Kate wanted to sew a skirt for her doll.  She is really good at sticking to a project and actually finishing it.  This skirt took a bit longer than normal because she had to wait for me to go to the store and buy elastic.  Then I came home and put it somewhere and couldn't remember where I put it.  But I finally found it and we got it all put together.  She did an excellent job on it!  I think the sewing skills skipped a generation.

 

I also have to give a special shout out to Kate.  She is already having a really good year in school.  There have been a few days when she's had extra projects as well as her homework and piano and sometimes on the same days she has dance.  She has done really well handling all this and getting it done and still being a delightful girl.  She's doing really well with all her math facts and spelling.  She has gotten 100% on almost all her spelling tests.  I have been really proud of her!

 

I think having made the skirt made her especially excited when a surprise package from Grandma Johnson showed up and inside were these skirts for her and Sara!

 

They both twirled around all afternoon while wearing them.  They've worn them to school and planned their outfits so they can be matching.  I apologized to Matt for not only having all sisters, but having very girly sisters!

 

And speaking of Sara... this girl cracks me up.  Whenever I know she's had my phone I check the camera.  Without fail, there are a hundred selfies of her.  It cracks me up.  I follow one of Matt's friends on Instagram and her mom has told me that she has to limit her to two posts/day.  At least 75% of them are selfies.  Sara is well on her way to an account like that!

 

 I think she's got the faces down!

My sister in law reminded me that I probably didn't ever post about Sara and her ukulele.  She saw one in the music store right before Christmas when I was picking up some new piano books.  I already had all her presents bought or I probably would have bought it for her.  Instead I told her if she saved half, I'd pay for the other half.  It took a couple of months but she got her uke!  It has been a bit disappointing because she doesn't know how to play and hasn't loved learning the basic strums but we're working on it.  I wish I could play one and then I could show her some cool things.  I still think it's funny that she wanted one so badly!