Dance, Football, Horses, Play...What else can we do?

 

Gracie's first day of dance

 

Gracie started dance a few weeks ago and loves going every week.  She is happy to stay there by herself and shows me her dance moves when she gets home.  Gracie has learned a few things, and is working on her cartwheels.  

 

Starting the new swingset

 Nick has started putting up the new swingset.  Yes, those are telephone poles cemented into the ground. They had been sitting on a flatbed until a friend of ours happened to drive by on his giant lift and let Nick borrow it to get the poles off the bed.  It's far from done, but at least he has started on our giant play set. 

 



Owen looking on in awe at the high school football practice

 Nick took this picture when they had gone to a volleyball game and practice was still going on at the school.  It is amazing how much Owen loves football. 
 



Riding horses at Grandma's

 



Owen riding the mini

 



Gracie's turn on Dancer

 



Gracie with Brayden on Thunder

 



 Gracie and Brayden getting ready to go

 

Last weekend we spent most of the day on Sunday at Nick's mom's.  Our neighbors and their kids went down for a few hours with us, which was really fun for all of them.  The weather was beautiful and all the kids got a turn riding the horses.

 

Gracie and Owen at the ISU game

 



GO CYCLONES!

 

Gracie and Owen have gone to two ISU football games with me, now, and they have done great at both of them.  I'm looking forward to taking them again this coming weekend.  The game is at 6pm instead of 7pm, so maybe we'll make it through the whole game.  They did the first game, which was at 2:30pm.  I'm just afraid that the newness might wear off and they will get bored with watching the game.  We'll see how it goes.  They know most of the music that is played and all of the chants that are led by cheerleaders and band members. 

 

Annie also visited last weekend, which was great.  We went shopping and had lunch on Saturday. She played with the kids while I went out for a couple hours with some coworkers and Nick was busy working outside.  She got Gracie to go to sleep all by herself in five minutes.  I was amazed!  Annie should come more often!

 

The kids have both had rounds with strep and the also had their yearly check ups.  Gracie is way above the average height and weight for her age.  Her teacher even told us that she is the youngest in the class, but the tallest and one of the brightest.  Gracie is such a good helper and has started making her bed in the morning if she can get out of bed in time.  She suggested it, and I didn't argue.  She kind of drags her feet in the morning, though.  I think she might take after Nick there.  Preschool is great for her, although she is enduring some consequences now for her resistance to nap/rest time.  She loses a couple minutes of recess sometimes for talking to her friends and not laying still.  I guess if that's the worst thing that happens, I'm ok with it.

Owen is doing pretty well, too.  He is in the 75th percentile for both height and weight.  He is 30 pounds and 36 inches tall.  It's amazing that Gracie can still carry him around.  He can throw a pretty good spiral with a football and can drop kick a ball.  He is still favoring his left, but the Dr. said that can change.  He had blood drawn again and he is no longer anemic.  He has been off iron for a couple months now, so that's good. He did awesome with his shots this time, which was a relief.  He is putting some sentences together with up to four or five words.  It's so nice that we know what he's trying to tell us now.  He is pretty happy in his new classroom now at school, but he still talks about his old teachers all the time.

I think that's about it for now.  Next week will mark our 10 year anniversary.  Amazing!  Where does the time go?