Where to begin..

Where to begin! Its been so long since I last updated the blog that I figured I'd just jump right in with what we're up to this fall!

Gavin is officially a kindergartener! We chose a homeschool co-op program for him this year called Homelink while our local elementary (across the street from our house) is closed for the year while they completely renovate the whole building. (They chose to bus the kids to a temporary building across town and we weren't diggin it.) He goes to classes like Lego building, creepy crawlies, weather and drama among others on tues. and wed. Then we learn at home the rest of the week using curriculum ordered through the school. It is alot of work but so fun! This big girl also started school this fall! Teag goes three days a week (mornings) to an amazing montessori school and she loves it! On the first day some of the kids were sad at drop-off and I could barely get a wave good bye from her! (I'm the sad one begging for a hug, ha)

Bode is 18 months old and my little sidekick. He's definitely a mama's boy and I'm loving it! He is talking so much and learning to hold his own around his brother and sister. He finally has almost all his teeth in and is sleeping through the night most nights. (finally!) He makes the kids (and us) laugh all the time and has has some killer expressions. We love this little guy! Last week I had a birthday (the big 30!) and Trent took me away for the weekend to Hood River, OR. My mom flew out the same week for a visit and had the kids while we were gone which was so great! We had an amazing time eating fun dinners out, golfing and tasting wine! The kids keep asking if we can 'leave again' so they can have alone time with Grandma or Nana!

Seattle Children's is featuring Teag's story in their November newsletter so we took a few pics to send them. It amazes me everyday how great she is doing and how big she is getting! She has another cardio appointment next week and we're still tenatively planning on her Fontan this coming spring or summer. She still takes her Captopril 3x's/day and 1/2 an aspirin, and it seems to be working for her!
We have had such a great summer and fall is off to a great start as well!

Still here and doing well!

We are still here! ha, and doing well! Alot has happened since I last updated around Halloween so I thought I'd do a quick re-cap...

In November we traveled back to Illinois for Thanksgiving and to celebrate my Great- Grandma's 100th birthday. We got to spend alot of time with my mom, stepdad and brothers before driving over to Indiana for the birthday party. My Great-Grandma lived most of her life on this amazing farm in a small town in Indiana and I love going back there and walking through her old farmhouse and poking around in the barn where we used to play as kids. The whole family was there and we had fun taking some photos around the farm. Here's a picture of all 5 generations of women on my mom's side- pretty amazing! My great-gran, my grandma, my mom, me and Teagan. My poor great-gran was so tired at this point, but this is the only pic I could find of all of us!

Christmas was great this year with the kids at such fun ages. We did lots of crafts/ornament making/baking and wrapping (and re-wrapping after Bode got his hands on them!) We celebrated as a family a few days early and then headed up to Trent's parents house for the week. Christmas Eve we all went to church and then headed over to Nana Barb's house for a "Happy Birthday Jesus" party! The party started with a re-enactment of the Christmas story and Jesus' birth. Gavin played Joseph and was excited to dress the part until he looked in the mirror and decided that his long robe made him look more like Mary, ha. Teagan was an angel and got to carry in the big star and lead everyone in to the 'manger'. She took her part very seriously but got her bible stories a little mixed up when she slammed the star down on the manger and yelled,"Ramses, let my people go!" (we had just watched 'The Prince of Egypt") We spent alot of time playing out in the snow and sledding down the big hill at Nana and Pacaw's too!Bode is growing up so fast and is 10 1/2 months old now. He is crawling everywhere and pulling up and pushing anything he can across the room. He loves to play in Gavin and Teagan's rooms and check out all of their 'big kid' stuff. He pulls up to Gavin's lego table all the time and sweeps his hand around to see if he can grab any little pieces.... I've pulled a few lego heads and other things out of his mouth lately, he's fast!

Here he is checking on what sister is up to. She loves to play mommy and is constantly telling him what to do (or not do!) She is always asking to feed him and is sad that he doesn't like to take a bottle (we're working on this!)

Teagan is also growing up fast lately! She's been in 'big girl pants' for a while now and is doing great! She's very independent and is always asking me to leave the bathroom if I'm trying to help her and gets offended when I try to put a pull up on her at night, ha. Its so nice not to have two kids in diapers, but its sad at the same time to see her getting so big! She loves all things princess, tinkerbell and dora/diego right now, and also dressing up 'fancy'.

At the beginning of the year I put her on the waitlist for the 2 year old preschool class after she was crushed that Gav was going to school and not her. She was pretty far down on the list and I forgot that we had put her on it until the school called in Jan. and said they had an opening. So Teag is officially a preschooler as of Feb. 3rd and loving every minute! She gets to go one day a week for two hours and loves, loves, loves her class. Here's Gav giving her some pointers before her first day.

So one day a week for two hours or so, this guy gets me all to himself! I love having a little alone time with him and I'm sure he appreciates the quiet playtime too! He is such a sweet boy, and a snuggler too! He's been having a hard time with his teeth lately and just finally broke his FIRST tooth through at 10 1/2 months! Poor guy... he eats pretty much all table food but has nothing to chew it with!

Gav goes to preschool 3 days/week and loves his class too! He's 5 1/2 now and due to start kindergarten in the fall. I found a really neat homeschool co-op that I think we're going to try called Homelink and I'm excited to learn more about it. I'm a little nervous about taking on homeschooling but I think it will be fun!

My little buddy!
Sweet, sweet girl!

Happy guy!