Dallas 18 months

makenna 5 months

never give up

Watching your child fail is one of the hardest things to watch as a parent. Despite 3 months of preparation for her Winters Classic gymnastics meet and an hour warm up this morning, the outcome was grim. Needless to say, the minute Readan saw the judges and her name was announced over the HUGE mega-speakers she completely fell apart. I have never seen her fall on the vault (see video below) and it was just so sad to watch. Literally two minutes before this video was shot, she completed 3 PERFECT vaults!!!

With tears streaming down her face, I picked her up and carried her over to the side. Between sobs, "Please mommy, I just want to go home!!! Take me home!!" As much as I wanted to scoop her up and take her home, I knew this is something she was going to remember for a long time. She was hurt (she bent her toe). She was angry. She was embarrassed.

I looked her straight in the eye and said, "Readan, you fell. It's okay. You're going to try again and if you fall, it's okay. I'm proud of you for trying!"

And, yes, she fell again. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to watch.

After the meet was over I taught her the word 'determination.' "When you fell and got back up to try again....that was determination." It wasn't all sad though, she still got a ribbon and a really shiny trophy!!! They called her name, she ran up to the podium and claimed her prize. Her face lit the entire gym. This was the highlight for me....

Readan and I both learned a very important lesson today....never give up!

all dressed up

"Mommy, can I wear your pearls?"

I heard these quiet words pierce my ears and as I peered down, I saw my little 5-year old daughter. Her eyes glowing in hopes I'd stay yes. How can I say no?

We head up to my bedroom and as I open my jewelry box I hear her giggle with glee....I take out the pearl necklace that was given to me on my wedding day. As I put the pearls around Readan's neck and close the clasp my eyes start to well up with tears. With no more room, they begin to overflow down my cheeks. I forgot how warm and salty tears are. Readan says, "What's wrong Mommy?" "Oh nothing baby....you're just growing up really fast." And she answers, "I know Mommy, it's because you make me eat carrots."

It's moments like these that are priceless. Through all the hard work and self sacrifice that motherhood IS, it also offers moments like these.

christmas party

Readan had her Christmas party at school, it turned out really fun. A big thank you to all the parents who turned out to help! We decorated christmas cookies, played christmas bingo, and had a book exchange (we played the 'hot potato' game to do the book exchange).

singing christmas songs during circle time

book that readan got during the book exchange

oops, ran out of icing....wonder where it went??

decorating cookies

yum!!

baby legs

My newest favorite thing, baby legs. These are so great! My number one rave for these is the prevention of rug burn on little knees. Dallas and Makenna are both scooting around on the carpet all day long and these help so much. Also, Readan likes to wear them with her short sleeve shirts that she just couldn't part when the cold air moved in. Right now we have 12 pair. A must have!

hello santa

It was the first time to visit Santa for Makenna and Dallas. Readan really didn't want to go because she doesn't think "he's real." (SHhhh)

Dallas screamed and Makenna had no idea what was going on.....LOVE this picture! It meets us exactly where we are. :)

gettin' organized

Having a 19 month old and a 5 month old takes a lot of stuff! We moved Readan downstairs and with all the extra room, I feel like I'm finally getting organized. This January my nursing class begin and, honestly, I feel like I'm nesting all over again. Getting the house organized makes me feel so much better!

deck the halls

I found this rather creative way to hang our stockings. Yet, another perk of having a big family- lots of cute stockings!!!

Our tree is up!

kena's first ponytail

cute, huh??

readan's new room

I finally finished Readan's new room!! I have been working on this since she left two weeks ago...cannot wait to see her face! I got most of the ideas from potterybarn kids (barbie room), such amazing room ideas there.

Some of the stuff we chose not to spend tons of money on, so I made one similar. For instance, the canopy was over $75 at pottery barn and I made one for $11! A 16 inch hot pink embroidery loop, some ribbon, and 1/2 price tulle at the fabric store, GO me!! The pictures were going to be $125, but I cleverly printed off some from the net and got some cute frames from Target...only $28. :)

I got this HUGE chalkboard from craigslist for $15! She will have so much fun with this.

Very proud of my handmade canopy

When organizing barbies, I highly recommend an over the door shoe organizer. We tried the "Barbie" organizer similar to this, but the slots were not big enough.

I will try to snap a photo of her face when she see's it! Can't wait to go and get her today...

miss my firstborn...

Readan has been gone for nearly two weeks and I miss her dearly! Kevin keeps asking me what's wrong because of my crabby mood...only 4 more days until we get her back!! Although I'm sure she is having fun with Daddy Aaron. ;)

And something funny that I figured out, Readan's perspective of our "ever-expanding" family is that it's "Me, Mom, and Dad, (us 3) and then we have these other two kids." Seriously funny!

See you soon darling...we all miss you!

-Mommy

Pumpkin smashing at the zoo...

We went to the zoo this weekend to see all the different animals play and smash pumpkins. The pumpkins were donated by local pumpkin patches. Some of the animals that we saw play with the pumpkins were: meerkats, elephants, sea lions, the river otter, and all the different monkeys. I guess they do this every year after Halloween.

My only regret is not taking my children to the zoo more often and earlier. This was Dallas' first year to the zoo, but we saw LOTS of babies there, and they were actually paying attention!! Makenna really liked the baby monkeys....I can only imagine how good that is for their development.

Makenna 3 months!!

Makenna is 3 months and getting so big. She rolls over and...seriously...tries to "chat" with us! This may be one of my favorite stages.

Loves her floor gym...

Halloween

We had such a blast this Halloween with three kids! Readan was a Barbie mermaid, Dallas was a lion, and Makenna was a caterpillar. Though it's hard work, the more the merrier!!

Kevin's sister, Ginger, went with us (such a trooper!). First we went "trunk or treating" at church then headed over to bonfire and made roasted hot dogs and Texas size smores. YUM!

Ginger pushing the double stroller

Caterpillar Season

So here is our latest science project at the York's household. We caught a fuzzy caterpillar (now is the time to capture them!) and put it in a jar with branches, fresh leaves, and a lid with holes. At the library, we checked out a book on caterpillars and researched how to care for one. They get their water from fresh leaves, not by drinking like we do! We're going to see the caterpillar go into "hibernation" and build its "cocoon" and then in the spring, we get to see it transform into a butterfly! Readan and Dallas' vocabulary is well advanced for their age. :) When our caterpillar forms its cocoon we'll add more pictures!

I Made IT!

On Monday I received a letter stating that I passed the entrance exam and was being admitted to the Nursing Program at Penn Valley. How exciting!! With only 14 slots for the evening/weekend session, I was worried. I will stay at home with my children during the day and then have class on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Clinicals will be on the weekends. Wow, two years is going to fly by!!!

We're planning on building a house when I graduate in Fall of 2011. Readan is tired of sharing a room with Dallas and Makenna so it will be so nice when they can all have their own room.

-Shana

Child Lessons

I have a weekly schedule: Monday, clean house; Tuesday, library day; Wednesday, errand day and so on...... Well, last Wednesday, I was running all the family errands as usual and needed to run by the bank to cash a check. As a former bank teller, I know the rules of the trade. I did not go to my bank, I just went to the bank that the check originally came from. No problem right? I pulled into the drive thru, sent in my drivers license and the signed check, and told the teller "just cash, please." She rudely chirps out, "Mam....you need to come IN to cash this check since you don't have an account with us." Now, I worked a bank forever and NEVER asked anyone to do this! So I say, "Oh, well I have 3 children and it's hard to get them in and out of the car....can you do it just this one time??" "NO," she says. So here is what I am thinking in my head:

Okay, you ridiculous teeny bopper, who OBVIOUSLY

doesn't have kids!!! Don't even make me mad....not TODAY!

I will write the owner of the BANK and have you fired!!

(I'm a little sarcastic when I'm mad) How dare
you put a rule on me, oh you just wait!!! I am so angry,

I will never..EVER...come to this bank again!

Then I come back to reality....I have four tiny eyes looking at me and two more that can hear me. They wonder...."What's mommy going to do." They watch my every move! Then I remember, how I react in this situation is going to teach them to react in their future situations. So I say to myself.....just show her the love of Christ...He lives in me...I can do it...don't get mad because these precious, tiny children depend on me to teach them how to live and more importantly, how to let Christ live through us.



So I say, "Okay, well thank you. Have a nice day."



And if she never ever sees me again, that's okay. I showed her Christ's love by not getting mad and my children learned a very important lesson that day.

Daddy Aaron

Readan goes to see Daddy Aaron 1 week a month and always has SO much fun! We always tell Readan how special she is to have 2 daddies!!! Here are just a couple pictures of what they do in Iowa.

This is Readan and the gopher she caught. I love how both her and the gopher are looking at the camera. They have a "special" trick to catch gophers that involves water, a milk jug, and of course....the gopher. :)

State Fair!!

Applefest

Alright, yes. ANOTHER 'fest' but they're SO much fun!! This was the Applefest in Weston, MO. Another fun packed weekend!

Ciderfest

So many "Fests!" This was the Ciderfest in Louisberg, KS; and the kids seriously had SO much fun. We learned how apples were 'picked' and learned the term....harvesting. Then we got to see where they go to get washed, peeled, cored, and smashed!! There were tasty apple doughnuts, and cold cider slushies. It's so nice to go on a day trip and not spend a ton of money to have fun. I'm sure we'll be going to back next year.

Readan on the jumbo slide

Yummy apple doughnuts

Munchkin Man