Things they learned/mastered this year

• Besides the physical skills that they have mastered this year (running, jumping, spinning on 1 foot, balancing, etc.) we are amazed at their mental and fine motor achievements, especially the past 3 or 4 months.
• Saying the alphabet, recognizing some letters and remembering words that start with that letter
• Counting to 10 consistently (sometimes we hear them saying thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, etc. but it is not consistent)
• Putting together puzzles. We started out with 9 piece puzzles about 1 month ago and they picked up on that very quickly. Kaleb can now put together a 24 piece puzzle with no problems (and does so a couple of times a day)! Kendall is more than capable of doing it, she just doesn’t always have the interest to finish the job!
• Singing nursery rhymes (or anything else they might hear on the radio). Kendall’s favorite right now is “I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus”. Kaleb’s is “Are you ready for some football! A Monday night party!”
• Dancing!
• Reading books – they will pretend to read back to us. Kendall can go back and read/say almost word for word back. Her memory is amazing!
• Kaleb can ride is bike very well/very fast. He is coordinated enough to go zooming around in circles around our house between the living room, dining room, around the island in the kitchen and back. Kendall likes to go on her bike, but she doesn’t like to use the pedals yet.
• They gave up their pacifiers in June (gave them to their friend Baby Evie when she came to visit from Minnesota this summer).
• Potty trained in June

They've grown so much since our first Christmas with them in 2007!

Fall Family Photos

We took some really cute family picture in our front yard down by the river during "color" season this fall.

Fall Family Photos

Here are some more cute ones of the kids. Kendall had to have her "bun-bun" in the pictures with her!

Potty trained!

Kendall & Kaleb simply amazed us at how easily they took to potty training. Back in February we purchased 2 potty chairs and set them out in the bathroom to introduce the kids to what they were. Kendall learned very quickly the muscles to use to make herself go...it took Kaleb a couple of months...he would sit for a few minutes, get up, look in the bowl and say "nope", sit back down, get up, look, say "nope", sit back down....and on and on. At this point, we were letting them wear underpants after dinner/before bathtime, but not attempting during the day. He eventually figured it out.

In the middle of June, there was a rainy/cold weekend where we had nothing planned, so we decided to put underpants on the kids after they woke up to see how they would do. Surprisingly, this was the last time that they wore a diaper during the day! We drove around all summer with a potty chair in the van just in case they had to go when we were not near a bathroom.

Kendall has had a few accidents, but Kaleb has done great right from the beginning! He started waking up from naps/nighttime with dry diapers, so in the middle of November he stopped wearing diapers all together. Kendall is still wearing them for naps/nighttime, but she is starting to wake up dry so pretty soon we will try her without a diaper during naps/night.

I think it was easy for them because they made it a competition. If one of them said they had to go the bathroom, you can bet the other one was right there trying to go to...we rewarded 1 M&M for #1, 2 M&Ms for #2 so they were both making sure that they got an M&M if the other one did.

Last ride before the snow

At the end of November, we got the 4 wheelers out for the kids and let them take their last few rides down the big hill before we trade them in for sleds!



Jamie got the lucky job of carrying the 4 wheelers back up the hill.

Movie night!

K & K had some friends over (actually mommy and daddy had some of our friends over that have children too). We set the kids up with a movie and some popcorn so that we could enjoy some adult food/beverages!

Sesame Street LIVE!

In November my mom, sister and I took the kids to see Sesame Street/Elmo LIVE in Green Bay. There was a huge group of parents/kids from Crystal Falls that went to the same show, so the kids had a bunch of friends there too! We had seats in the 2nd row and the characters went on the stage and also came down onto the floor to interact with the crowd. Kendall got frightened at the very beginning when they all came out and I had to take her into a row closer to the back. Kaleb was really enjoying it until he looked around and noticed the Kendall and I were not there, so he wanted to leave to come and find us. After intermission, we had them convinced the characters were not going to come by them or touch them, so we went back up to the front. I was really impressed with the stage/props and music. Very fun!

Kendall and Elsie wearing matching Abby Cadabby shirts.



Kaleb with Kevin and Vic in matching shirts.

Goofball goggles!

Our kids have such a fun sense of humor and really like to get silly!

Happy Halloween

This was a very fun Halloween for us! Kaleb loves Thomas the Train, so I thought I was a genius and ordered him a Thomas costume. When it came in the mail I was so excited to show it to him...his response "I don't want to be Thomas, I want to be Spiderman". So, Spiderman he was! Kendall wanted to be Strawberry Shortcake so my mom made her an awesome costume, complete with a prop cupcake! We went trick-or-treating, then up to a Halloween program at the school.

Carving pumpkins

Kendall and Kaleb liked scooping the "guts" out of the pumpkins!



We carved a choo-choo train for Kaleb and a bunny rabit for Kendall! They turned out great!

Decorating for halloween and first snow!

We had a lot of fun picking out pumpkins, corn stalks and scarecrows for Halloween this year!

On Oct 12th we got our first snow of the year! Surprisingly, they remembered what snow was! Thankfully it all melted right away! I don't think we could handle snow on the ground permanently yet!

Making salsa and cookies

We had four tomato plants in planters on our deck this summer. Due to the colder weather they didn't ripen on the plant, so we had to put them in between newspaper in the basement and wait for them to ripen. A bunch of them turned at the same time, so I decided to make salsa with the kids. They really liked dumping ingredients in and stirring.


With the cooler evenings, we have been spending more time in the kitchen and one night made cookies! Yummy!

Bike riding

We got them bikes for their birthday and towards the end of the summer Kaleb really started to learn how to ride his. He was zooming around on the sidewalk and now that the weather is cold he is zooming around our house! Kendall likes to go on her bike but she is just now starting to figure out how to use the pedals.

Relaxing in the hammock

It is so nice and peaceful by the river!

Here is the view back up to our house.

Playing with the hose

It was so hot even Reece needed to cool down!

Ghost bums...let us in!!!

Cutest summer picture!

As anyone with 2 kids knows, it is not very easy to get a good picture with both looking at the camera and smiling, but this is one of my FAVORITES!

Sitting on the steps

These are the steps leading down to the beach at the cottage.

K&K cottage candids

We had the best summer out at the cottage. I had the whole month of July off and we were beach bums!

K&K cottage candids continued

Building sandcastles with Grandma

K&K cottage candids continued

Playing in the sandbox that uncle Dan and my uncle Rick built on the beach.

Kendall candids

Kendall really enjoyed the water this summer!


She loved her Dora bathing suit!


Ballerina boat driver!

Kaleb candids

Kaleb had a great time in the sandbox that uncle Dan and my uncle Rick built for them down at the beach.


Kaleb and Reece on lookout at the front of the pontoon boat.

Fishing

Jamie bought the kids fishing poles to start them early :-) They were surprisingly good at casting and reeling in "the big one". If you ask them how big the fish was that they caught, they would stretch their arms out as wide as they could and say "this big"...learning young alright!

Finn/Polack game

During one of the festivals in town this summer, Jamie and I played softball in the annual Finn vs. Pollack game. It was a lot of fun!

Riverwalk concert series

Once a month our town had an outdoor concert down at the Riverwalk on the Paint River.