Birthdays

Avery has really been waiting for her birthday to come along. After celebrating Garrett's, then mine, and then Daddy's, she's a little puzzled why she has to wait for hers to come. She knows her birthday is in March, but that is a long ways away when you are only 2! I asked her yesterday what she wants for her birthday. She said, "Ummm, candles and frosting." I said, "Oh yes, I will make you a cake! But what kind of present do you want?" She thought about this for awhile and replied, "A green one." We're thinking of getting her a Barbie-sized dollhouse for her birthday this year. But everytime we go shopping, it's the matchbox cars and Thomas the train sets that she goes crazy for! Maybe we'll have to add a set of the Cars characters to her gift!

Just a few other cute things that she does at age 2 1/2:
She loves to wear her K-State outfit. She proudly cheers, "Go K-Steak!"

She comes sneaking into our bedroom every Saturday and Sunday morning. She used to crawl up in the middle right away and tell us to, "Make me a pot!" (spot). She leaves off her s's. It's really cute. Lately she will make many trips to bring all of her favorite stuffed animals to our bed before she crawls into bed. Today that required 5 trips. If Garrett is already in our bed, he kindly asks her to get the rest of his animals off his bed. Of course, she's happy to oblige her brother and proceeds to make several trips up/down his bunk bed ladder to retrieve his 5 favorite animals/blankies. She says, "I will get them Gawett." So today that sweet little girl made 8 trips with armloads of animals and blankets to our room before she climbed into bed. I was buried under stuffed animals!

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas and hope you did too! We survived 4 days in our house with 7 adults, 5 children age 5 and under, and 3 dogs! It was wonderful to have so much time together with my family, although between chasing our own children around, feeding them, and putting them to bed, we agreed that it still felt that we hardly had time to talk to each other. Thanks Reimer family for road-tripping it to our house this year - good times were had by all!

Santa's Cookies

When we put out our cookies for Santa Claus, Garrett said, "We could probably eat one, right Mom? If Santa eats them all, he'll get fat." So we ate one!

Dear Santa

We are SO excited for Christmas this year. We've been cutting links off of our Christmas countdown chains every night. One of the best parts of Christmas this year - we are hosting it at our house! The Reimer family is road-trippin' it up to our house. It will be nice to spend Christmas in our home with our family. I'm excited for all of the cousins to be together for several days straight.

This year we watched Santa ride in on a horse-drawn carriage to flip a big switch and turn on the Christmas lights on the HUGE tree at the mall during the lighting ceremony. His sleigh with 2 reindeer was parked nearby. We also visited Santa at the mall and the kids both sat on his lap. Garrett asked for a "toy train" and Avery asked for a "toy train." That's no surprise!

Greg helped the kids write letters to Santa. Garrett asked for a "toy train and a remote control car." Avery asked for, "What Garrett wants and a bone for Casey." That didn't go over so well with Garrett. Boy does that little girl love her brother! We delivered our letters to the big red SANTA mailbox at the bank and were so excited when Santa wrote us back about a week later!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Baby News

I'm a little late in sharing on the blog, since most already know that Baby #3 is on the way! We are so excited to announce that our family is growing! I'm 10 weeks now and my due date is July 19th. It will be interesting to see how I survive a hot humid July at the end of my pregnancy! We will probably be hanging at the pool EVERY day! We had our first ultrasound at 8 weeks. Everything looked great and we could see the little flicker of the heartbeat. We'll get to hear the heartbeat on January 5th, our 9 year anniversary and my first dr's appointment! Can't wait for both of those things! I feel like I'm showing really early this time - guess those poor abs just don't hold things in so well the 3rd time around. Oh well. Greg and I have decided we will NOT find out the gender this time. We found out with both Garrett and Avery but since we already have boy and girl stuff, we'll just let this be a surprise. That might be tough for me. I have a hard time waiting for surprises and the suspense can almost kill me! When we ask Garrett and Avery what they want to have, Garrett says a sister and Avery says a brother. Then they proceed to argue about it!

Garrett and Avery were thrilled about the news. Garrett announced to Grandpa Reimer over the phone, "We're having a BABY!" Avery shared with Grandma and Grandpa Stohs, "I gonna be big sister!" Garrett has SO many good questions this time. It's really different having a 5-year old around to ask about everything instead of just a 2-year old like my last pregnancy. He wants to know, "How big is the baby?" "What does it eat?" "How does it breathe?" I have a nice pregnancy book with real color photos of babies at each week of development. For about 2 weeks, Garrett poured over the pictures, studying them closely.

Avery told me the other night, "I have a baby too." I thought she was referring to her baby doll, so I said, "Yes, you do." She patted her tummy. "Right here Mommy. Two babies." I guess she is having twins!

Bell Ringing

About 2 weeks ago, I spent 2 hours with a good friend doing a good deed. My friend Julie and I signed up as bell ringers for the Salvation Army. We had an evening shift outside a grocery store so we piled on the layers in 30 degree weather. It was so much fun and ended up being 2 hours of good conversation and laughter! We stayed warm except for our toes and we both agreed that they were slightly painful as they thawed out later when we returned home! If you have some free time and want to help out those in need, check out salvationarmyusa.org.

Sunken Gardens

Every year I love to vist the Sunken Gardens when it is in full bloom to snap some pics of the kids. We barely made it this year (notice we are wearing winter clothes!) before the first frost hit. Here are my favorites:

Happy Halloween!

15K!

On October 17th, I ran my first 15K! (9.3 miles - woohoo!) I had wonderful company, running with Julie and Shawna again. My biggest fans were there to cheer me on! I had 2 personal goals for this race - to finish in 1 hour 45 minutes or less and to run 11 minute miles or quicker. I was thrilled to meet both goals! I finished in 1 hour 44 minutes and eleven seconds at an 11 minute 10 second pace! Not to bad. Next time I would train more thoroughly and try to train for speed as my endurance improves. I really slacked off the month before the race, thinking that I was pregnant. I found out the weekend before that I was not, so I dusted off my running shoes and signed up! And I'm glad I did. I can definitely see a half marathon in my future...

a BIG train

Greg, Garrett, and Avery were lucky enough to see the biggest working steam engine in the world, The Challenger. It passed thru Herkimer, KS, home of Greg's Grandma Melba. The train was making it's way back from St. Louis, MO to Cheyenne, WY, where it is housed. It stopped overnight in Marysville, KS, so the kids, Greg, and Great-Grandma got a chance to see it up close. The next morning, it flew thru Herkimer at 60 mph as they watched by the tracks. We have some amazing video footage of it coming, puffing up huge clouds of steam in the distance as it gets closer to town. I had to stick around Lincoln for a late meeting at work, so I didn't get to witness this "awesome" train. (Just ignore the strange lady's backside in the first picture. We can thank Greg's photography for that!)

Pumpkin Patch!

We decided to check out a new pumpkin patch this year, ironically it's the one closest to our house! We went to Roca Berry Farm, where we pick strawberries in the springtime. We went on Garrett's birthday, the morning and early afternoon before his party, so it was a busy day for all of us! The kids had a blast in the haunted barns, the corn maze, riding the ponies, and riding the hayrack out to pick pumpkins. Avery rode the biggest pony, Stinky Pete, and Garrett rode Tanner. They both got a kick out of Stinky Pete's name.

Easton

I'm a little behind with everything! Here is a picture of (not so new) cousin Easton, Johnathan & Shelby's little boy. I can't remember exactly how old he was in this picture, but it was the first weekend that Avery & I met him. Garrett & Greg made a trip down when he was born to meet him in the hospital.

Garrett's Birthday Pics

Wow, has it really been 6 weeks since I've blogged? Life has been busy around here. Garrett had a wonderful birthday party. The weather was great, so we played games outside, chowed on some pizza and cake, and opened presents. Garrett, Avery, and his friends Andrew, Nathan, Jacob, Salora, and Abbey had a great time.