Veteran's Day Program

The third graders put on a wonderful program for Veteran's Day. Here they all are, looking fine. 

We were excited that Nora's kindergarten class got to come to the parent performance, since they weren't there for the performance for the students. We were sitting about 4 rows behind Nora!

Zeke told us where to sit because he was on the stage right end of the line. We got good seats this year thanks to his advice and arriving earlier than for previous years. 

Zeke volunteered for a speaking part and did great! A lot of the kids were hard to understand but I thought he did a great job of speaking slowly and clearly. 

The program was a very stirring patriotic event. The flag was brought in by older veterans and then the students invited all veterans in the audience to stand when the song for their branch of the military was sung. It was so inspiring and touching and I was filled with gratitude for living in the United States and having so many people willing to be our defenders. 

Purple Dress

Nora got her purple dress last year for Easter, a gift from Aunt Carrie. At that point, the skirt was so long that it brushed the ground when she had shoes on (and dragged when she didn't) and she tripped over it all the time. Going up stairs was nearly impossible, and on occasion caused tears. 

It was the only dress she had for most of the year, so she wore it every week and became quite attached to it. By fall it wasn't quite so long and she was much more skilled at stairs (and running, jumping, walking, standing up from sitting....) so it didn't get in her way anymore. 

Towards Christmastime, we inherited some fun hand-me-down dresses and she wore those for several weeks, which was so adorable and seasonal. For Kyle's wedding, we needed to have purple - so glad I arbitrarily picked purple over pink when Carrie gave me the choice! Nora got to wear her purple dress for two days in a row. 

Ever since the wedding, there just is no other dress that can compare. Nora loves her purple dress more than ever, and I have learned that trying to talk her into a different one is just not possible. Getting her ready for church is no problem at all. She is totally willing to get dressed into her purple dress, the sooner the better. In fact, if she sees me in a skirt she runs to her closet yelling 'My purple dress!' 

It is pretty miraculous that she's been able to wear this dress for a whole year. Sadly, we can see that the end is drawing near. I'm not quite sure how she's going to take it when it truly is too small....it's one of her very most favorite things!

First Words

Nora's vocabulary is exploding! She says about 25 words now, and they are coming fast. I was thinking the other day that I don't remember Zeke's vocabulary expanding this rapidly at this age, and it didn't. He was 20 months before he said a total of 25 words (Nora is not quite 17 months). They said their first words at around the same age (14 months). In the two top-25 lists, there are 8 that overlap: cheese, fish, cracker, socks, shoes, mom (mama), dad (da), and kitty/cat.

Zeke                Nora

yes	bye-bye
cat	hi
cheese	cheeeese
jet	fish
cracker	cracker
truck	shoes
shoes	socks
socks	cheese
sit	go
fish	chocolate
hugs	train
hat	cookie
shirt	marshmallow
chicken	pretzel
baby	cup
Cheerios	m&ms
color	dad
dad	uh-oh
mom	mom
chalk	ball
soup	down
church	apple
kiss	car
hand	bottle
hot	kitty

It's fun to see how the lists reflect their personalities and our situation. In Zeke's list you can see our jet rally vacation and evidence of the chickens in the backyard. Nora's list shows her love of food (particularly sweet treats) and evidence of having and older brother playing cars and trains. Both of them love their goldfish crackers and socks and shoes [shoes mean going outside, after all]. 

Back Blogging for Zeke

Zeke has always liked looking at the pictures on our blog, but lately he is really loving it. He has gone back through the whole blog (3 years and 240+ posts) several times in the past couple of weeks and told me about the pictures and watched the videos over and over and over again. I don't know what he loves about our WHS alumni performance of 'Homeland', but I think I have the song memorized better now than when we performed it thanks to repeated listenings.

It's fun for me too to see the pictures again. Most of the more recent stuff I know what the post/picture is when he tells me about it, but older than that I have to come look and reread, which I have enjoyed. After all, the reason for the pictures and blog is to share and preserve the memories.

There are some pictures he keeps looking for that just aren't there, so there might be several historical posts in our future. Here's the first.

Zeke got a birthday package from Grandma the day before his birthday (earlier this year). I saw UPS stop on our street but was really surprised when the delivery came to our house. I was racking my brain trying to remember if we had ordered anything online, but as soon as I saw the name on the address it all made sense. Zeke was super excited and opened his box as soon as he could.

Thank you Grandma for a brown Mater,

Red, a Cars plate, and some candy. Oh and some clothes, but Zeke pretty much ignored those.

Zeke was so excited. It was a great pre-birthday celebration!

Oreo Face

We gave Nora her first taste of Oreo recently. Of course she loved it and of course it made quite the mess. I thought we did pretty well at limiting the mess to her face, and then after we got her face wiped and bib off she started drooling chocolate.

I'm so glad Aaron got the camera because it's definitely a moment to remember. As I was giving Nora her treat I was remembering Zeke's first Oreo experience. He was a bit older than Nora so we probably just gave him the cookie and let him go for it. He had a great time.

Memory Tree

We have a tree of many varied ornaments, and as I was enjoying its peaceful glow I realized that they each hold a memory. Ornaments Aaron's mom made for her kids, ornaments received as gifts from many sources, ornaments we bought together, ornaments Zeke made at church, and more.

The tree itself holds memories too. We bought it on Christmas clearance the year before we were married. The light strands were once white lights, and we swapped out each individual light on the multi-colored pre-lit tree we bought my mom at the same time. Aaron did custom colors for the lights in our star. And so many other little things. And the beautiful thing is the memories will only grow as the years go by.

Kid Compare

When Nora did this a caouple of weeks ago,

I had to snap a picture because I have a very similar one of Zeke at close to the same age.

And here are Nora and Zeke at 3-4 weeks:

I love that they share a lot of features (like the pinchable, kissable chubby cheeks), but they really are different. And just like with Zeke, Aaron and I have both been told that Nora 'looks just like you!'

Pink Train

I love this picture Aaron took in Japan.

One day I'll see something like this in person.

Trio of Us

Ya'll aren't going to be able to see our new place, so I thought I'd show you the family picture collage I'm putting together. Using the past 3 years of family pictures was Aaron's idea :)

Supposed to Be a Squirrel

A few years ago we went camping with Aaron's family. There was some animal life right out the back (tent) door, and we tried our best to capture our animal friends on film. However, these critters are small and they are fast, so many a photo op was over by the time we got the camera turned on. One squirrel disappeared as soon as I pushed the shutter button, so I lowered the camera, disappointed. But the picture took anyway, and we got this. Pretty cool, eh?

Really we did get good pictures too. It was a beautiful campground and we had a great time. And rumor has it we're going back for more Loertscher fun next month!

Pre-Family Time

I realized this weekend that we passed an unofficial anniversary of sorts. Funny, I don't think I have ever recognized this 'anniversary' before. Aaron and I started dating at the beginning of April a few years ago. This came after about 8 months of getting to know each other and becoming inseparable best friends before we dared admit our feelings to each other.

Maybe what made me think about our start of official dating is I got some of the pictures Aaron's parents had taken of our early days together. Ah the magic of young love (and how quickly a baby in the family can turn young lovers into responsible adults...). But really I wouldn't have it any other way.

A Sweet Holiday

Aaron introduced me to White Day, a Japanese celebration similar to Valentine's Day. On February 14th girls give guys milk chocolate, and on March 14th the guys return the favor by giving the girls white chocolate. Hence the name White Day. Our first White Day celebration was five years ago when Aaron gave me white chocolate and white gold.

We have since switched it up a bit -- because Aaron is a white chocolate fan he gets the white chocolate today and he gave me milk chocolate for Valentines. Not exactly traditional, but that's what makes traditions fun.

Such A Silly Goose

Zeke and I took the trash out yesterday and our neighbors' trio of geese were out in the yard doing what they do best - making noise. Zeke looked a bit concerned, because there was obviously some sort of alarm going off. I told him that it was a goose and tried to get him to repeat the word 'goose.' After two or three repetitions he tried it: 'gooos'. I am so impressed that he caught on so fast. Now whenever he hears them honking (which is frequent), he looks at me with a big smile and a look that says 'Hey I know what that is!' and says 'gooos'. Adorable.

Obviously this picture isn't exactly recent - but it's still cute! And yes those are two of the three geese that Zeke now talks about.

Bonus silly Zeke story: this afternon Zeke got kind of whiny, which I understood to mean he wanted a drink. So we went downstairs to go on the sippy cup hunt. He has a tendency to just drop it wherever he gets done with it, so I started looking in all the usual places. Of course by this time Zeke couldn't remember where it was, and when I had no luck I gave in and got a new cup. After I had given Zeke his milk and he was chugging away, I walked out of the kitchen and saw the first cup: he had been standing next to Grandma in her recliner and when he was done with his milk he just tucked the cup under the blanket next to her feet!

'Tis the Season to Be ... Stressed?

Does the holiday season stress you out?

Stop stress before it gets out of control!

**Share your work with your friends and family -- get those 'must do' tasks done faster, and spend more time with the people you care most about
-Make cleaning and decorating the house a family affair
-Go Christmas shopping with friends
-Throw a joint party with friends instead of each of you planning your own

**Stick to your routine -- this applies to all ages!
-Eat regular meals (not just snacks)
-Get enough sleep (and make sure the kids get their naps)
-Exercise - even just a few minutes makes a difference
-Make time for yourself

**Make a plan -- and schedule in some flexibility
-Make shopping lists
-Plan times to shop, cook, clean, and wrap and deliver gifts
-Decide what your top priorities are and schedule them first; fit in others as time permits
-Expect delays when you (or others) travel

**Don't overschedule yourself or your family

**Take a break when you're feeling overwhelemed, irritable, tense, stressed out, or unhappy

Who knows, you just might enjoy the holidays more this year!

You can find these and other great tips just by searching the web. My sources include Mayo Clinic, Navy safety center, and fun.familyeducation.com.

Thanksgiving Then and Now

Last year we got to share soft Thanksgiving foods with our 7 month old. After playing on the floor with his cousin Kaelyn, Zeke ate some mashed potatoes, roll, pumpkin pie, and vanilla ice cream (no apple pie, thank you very much). I was thrilled that he was old enough to enjoy the food of his very first Thanksgiving. The ice cream was definitely his favorite part.

This year, he ate turkey and stuffing and potatoes and all of the other good food like a champ. He ran around outside playing RC cars before dinner and played with his aunt and uncle after dinner. My how times have changed. We'll see how much has really changed when we try the apple pie...

Random Photo for the day

The only digitized picture we happened to have readily accessible from 1992: Aaron's Japanese class his senior year. Can you identify Aaron?

Dynna and Zeke

For Dynna's birthday, we made a dvd slideshow of pictures of Dynna and Zeke, starting with the first time she held Zeke on his birth day and ending with pictures we took last month. Dynna and Zeke are both so cute, I'd love to post all 50+ pictures! But I also want you to be able to load our blog in a reasonable amount of time, so I picked some of the best ones to share with all of you.

Happy Birthday Dynna!