Update Time

Okay, so the last few weeks have been quite busy. We had homecoming, parties, a trip to Madison, and so much more that I can't remember. The kids have been fighting off colds, but so far, so good.

Emma went to Children's on the 30th and did a great job seeing her opthamologist. Her eyes do still read an elevated pressure. So, that earns us another appointment in 4 months instead of 6. We were able to find out that until she's around age 10, she can't complete a field of vision test. Without a field of vision test, from our understanding, she will not be diagnosed with pediatric glaucoma, if she does have it. We do know that she has elevated pressures as well as enlarged optic nerves. Not the best news, but if it is this, we have caught it very early and it can be treated.

Lucas has been an explosion of words lately. Everyday he seems to learn a new word and can't wait to use it. He loves saying oh no, shoe, memma (Emma), dada, momma, derta(Berta), dod(Rod), go, and so many more that I can't even remember. He's also learning new signs, he knows more, all done, thank you, sorry, and drink. He did get to take a trip to the ER this past week. He fell on the kitchen floor and bit the inside and the outside of his lip and also jammed his front two teeth up a bit. No stitches, but a lot of blood and some really fat lips for a few days. Somehow that didn't seem to slow him down at all.

Tim is coming to the end of his class and then will sign up for the next one shortly after that.

I am staying very busy with school and am loving being the science teacher. Who knew this was what God had planned for me.

Well, that's it for now, we pray that God blesses you all and know that you are all in our prayers.

Lutheran High Homecoming 2009

This year at Lutheran High's Homecoming Coronation, Emma was asked to been one of the crown bearers. This meant that she got to get a fancy dress, curly hair, sparkly shoes, and to carry a princess crown! This was a dream come true for her. We were so proud of how she behaved that night and that she did her very best job. Lucas wanted to play along too, so we took a few cute pics of him as well. If you can't tell Emma's dress was a light purple, fitting since that's one of Lutheran's colors.

All done with my very important job!

A nice family picture before coronation.

Emma and Ben walking the crown to the stage. They wanted to hold hands and had been doing so for about 10 minutes before this.

I love this picture!

Here's the little ham!

Pumpkin Farm

One Sunday after a great nap time, we loaded everyone up and went out the Swan's Pumpkin Farm for a secret adventure! The kids loved running around and seeing all the animals. Emma went right up to all of the animals and Lucas even pet a few. It was a great 45 minutes and well worth it. We had a great time and even came home with a few pumpkins!

Lucas couldn't decide on a pumpkin, he wanted to play with all of the "balls." Anything round is a ball to this little man.

Emma found her perfect pumpkin.

This little "Turkey" isn't so little anymore!

This is the traditional photo taken at Swan's every year since Emma was born. I love looking back and seeing how our little "Turkey" has grown and changed over the past four years.

There are a ton of these orange, round, balls. I must pick one to throw!

If you look closely, you'll see that Emma is touching an animal (which is a huge thing) and Lucas is squealing with joy about the whole thing.

Mom says that this is fun, but I don't understand where I am!

Future Fireman???

Lucas may have found what he wants to be....if not he had a really good time at the block party!

We love our jammies!

Can you tell???

Apple Picking

A couple of weeks ago we took off for the afternoon on a Saturday to go pick apples! It was a prefect Saturday afternoon and we found a small and quiet apple orchard. The kids were able to roam free within the apple trees and it was just the right amount of time to spend doing this little activity. We brought home a peck and a half of apples. We were able to pick both Macintosh and Gala apples. They've all been either eaten or turned into something already, so we'll be heading out there again soon! It was just a great way to spend the day as a family!

Emma loved picking apples off the tree to take home for us to eat!
Lucas thought it was pretty cool that we let him pick things off of trees.

Lucas really had fun throwing the "balls" around the orchard!

First Day of 4 Year Old Pre-School

So it wasn't the first day of daycare, but Lucas really wanted his picture taken. Gotta love wearing jeans and sweatshirts on the last day of August!

Here she is headed off to her first day of 4 year old pre-school. She was so excited this morning!

Here she is in her classroom right before school started. She told us that today she learned about attributes, octogons, made new friends, had Bible story time, and had teddy grams for snack. On top of it all she even slept at daycare this afternoon without any accidents! What a great first day!

Emma's birthday and 3 little girls

On Emma's birthday we went to Discovery World in Milwaukee. Emma enjoyed driving the big boat!

Lucas liked yelling at the fish.


Morgan, Emma, and Jayda are all in the same class together at school!

Sarah Turned 30!

Luckily the house didn't burn down!

Isn't she cute!

My birthday cake!

The girls loved playing dress up, Eli thought they were funny looking!

So, I turned 30 this summer. Tim was very sweet and threw me a surprise 30th birthday party with our friends. It was great to have everyone together! We had a nice dinner and enjoyed visiting with friends from college and from work. The kids loved playing with each other and the girls were sad to say good-bye. All in all it was a great afternoon and evening.

Thanks honey!

Summer Review

So, the last 6 weeks have been very busy around here. Tim is working on his masters degree, I have taken on two new and somewhat challenging things at school, and the kids have been coming along for the ride!
Tim and I did something for ourselves this summer, we bought season tickets to the zoo's jazz concert series. We've had 3 great concerts and 1 more left. We love going, it's great food, great friends, and really great music. The kids stay home and are usually in bed asleep when we get home at night.
Emma had her four year old check up and for once she's healthy!! We laugh because she's 42 and a half inches tall and 42 pounds 6 ounces. We have a very square little girl. She is getting excited for school to start, but doesn't like the weeks before school starts.

Lucas has grown like a weed this summer. He's needed new shoes as well as new socks since nothing from June will fit his feet any longer! He is learning new signs, loves to yell "GO!", he plays ball all the time, and really wants to play the Wii as often as possible. He even thinks that static on TV and a Wii remote will suffice.

I have stayed extremely busy with school this summer. I took over our science department, which included lot's of cleaning and sorting and reorganizing. This meant a lot more time at school during the summer than I'm used to. I also have been helping out with the new lunch program. Let's just say that the government is VERY picky about EVERYTHING!! They have been difficult to deal with and we've found many new "surprises" each day that we work on it. Hopefully we'll be serving milk and lunch to everyone who needs it on the first day!

Tim is getting ready to start school on Wednesday, with new student orientation on Monday afternoon/evening. He will have the challenge this year of having a quadrapalegic in his class. This should prove to be a learning experience for everyone at LHS. Tim and my Dad also worked very hard one day to try to finish our hutch that we've been working on for 5 years. I am proud to say that it is finished and in the house.

State Fair Fun!

Lucas loving the fountain at the fair!

Emma enjoying her Blue Moon ice cream.

Emma and I on the giant slide. This was something that she did not like, at all!

Something Fishy!!

So, this week around here it is fish week. We really didn't do anything fishy today except for reading a fish story. Tomorrow is swimming lessons, that's sorta fishy, and a craft in the afternoon. Wednesday Tim is going to take Emma fishing during the day. Thursday we're going to head up to Discovery World in Milwaukee to see some fish! Also, this is the outing that we're taking for Emma's birthday. I think then on Friday we will end the week with another fish project. As far as my to do list project, it's mostly working. Going out twice this week for our anniversary (once we brought dinner in and the weekend gave us a chance to go out) really kinda set me back. I lost 1.5 pounds, instead of three, but I'm on my way. Today we spent the morning at the Racin Zoo and once Tim uploads his photos I'll be sure to post them.

Monday afternoon

So, this is officially my first week of summer vacation. I'm glad that the weather is cooperating for this week. In order to keep myself on track this summer, I've posted a to-do list for this week. I aways make these lists, but tend to shy away from the things I don't like to do (losing weight, taking care of the messes) and busy myself with other things. I'm trying a little experiment. Every Monday afternoon, during nap time, I'm going to make a new list of things I feel I need to accomplish this week. While I may end up doing other things, I'm going to try really hard to accomplish everything that is on my list. I have time right now, so I'm going to make use of it. I've put everything on there from grocery shopping, to reading a book. I'm hoping this is going to keep me honest in all that I'm doing, since I know there are people out there reading this blog! So, keep me honest folks, I need all the help I can get.

Transportation Week

This was the official start of summer in our household. This summer we are "planning" out lot's of things to keep Emma busy and going. So, this week was transportation week. This is what happened next door Monday morning! Needless to say, she was thrilled.

The Long Awaited Photos

Lucas had a great First Birthday! We celebrated the actual day with spaghetti and cupcakes. That weekend we had all the family over for a Cinco De Mayo birthday party. The big kids loved beating on the pinata.

I love food!

Even more, I love chocolate!


Alyssa taking a swing at the pinata.

Emma gave it a hit or two.
Nathanael was the one who got it open!

Summer is here, I think.

Well, we made it! School is out and we are at home. Both Tim and I have a significant amount of work to do in and out of school this summer, but we are thankful to be creating our own schedule for this short time.

So, it's been a while and I have been reminded that it's been a long time since updating the blog. Our new fun is that Lucas started walking about 1 week before his first birthday! He is now practically running, but forgets sometimes how to stop and falls on his head. He is also cutting all six of his top teeth at one time. We have begun the process of weaning him off the bottle. All in all, he is still our happy baby boy. Last night we were at my mom and dad's and he just wanted to cuddle up in my arms for a long time before heading off to sleep for the night. He is my cuddly baby.

That brings me to Emma. Emma is also thrilled to be on summer vacation. She has already filled our days with what she wants to learn about and where it is that she wants to visit. She can't wait to be able to return to story time and start visiting the library again. This was something that had to fall to the wayside during the school year. We are also looking into starting back up with swimming lessons for both the kids this summer. Lucas loves the water and Emma is wanting to learn how to swim.

Tim and I are tired, but happy to have more time with our kids as well as with each other. Tim aced his first graduate class and is now taking two classes this summer. These are proving to have a little more work with them, but he is working hard everyday and doing very well in his class.

I am working on preparing my classroom for the coming school year. I know that it doesn't start until August, but I have some new and interesting challenges coming my way next year, so I am trying to get my classroom in good condition for the next year.

I would ask that you would keep my parents in your prayers. There are some big changes taking place and things have become very difficult for them. We are all praying for God's Will to be done and for everyone to be at peace with that, even though it may be difficult.

I will be adding pics later on this week. We are having some technical difficulties with Tim's new camera and blogger!

Memphis Pics

A little art designing at the Children's Museum

Safety first.

Lucas really can't wait to drive!

Lucas loved the monkey!

Emma found a giant egg!

Lucas got really tired at the zoo, we were wishing we could do that!

Lucas preferred the stroller to the cold water. He cried if we got in the water!

Here's Emma somewhere along the Mississippi River, splashing around!

These are the Peabody Ducks swimming in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel!