Spirit Week and Christmas photos

Last week was spirit week at Emily's school. On Wednesday it was Business day so Emily dressed up as none other than an insurance agent. She looked so cute with her tie and briefcase. Mike even took her to work early to make her a name tag.
Thursday was blast from the past. So we dressed her up like the 80's. I did a side ponytail with a big hair scrunchy, tied her shirt on the side, colorful socks, and Mike pegged her pants. I didn't know what that was but it's where you take the bottom front of her jeans, fold it over and roll it up 2x. I did a close up for you below.


Cheers!

At her class Christmas party, a parent brought in Sunny Delight. I never let Emily have orange juice so this was very special to her. I even let her have seconds, (because I poured all the kids glasses and they all only got a small amount)!
I had signed up to bring cookies and Nathan had a fussy day so I couldn't make any. So the night before we took Emily to the store to pick out cookies to bring. She chose snickerdoodles. She doesn't like those cookies but insists that she does. So when it came time for her party, this is her taking a bite of one. Notice the look on her face...fake enjoyment.
JOY TO THE WORLD, THE LORD HAS COME!
After church, before going to visit Santa clause. Boy it's hard to get a good picture with all 3!
All four of our beautiful children. We almost got them all to smile. At least they're all looking in the right direction!
After lunch on Sunday, we took the kids to see Santa. They still hadn't told him what they wanted for Christmas. When we were the next in line, Mike ran around the display to the other side to take a picture. So I was holding Nathan and literally dragging a sobbing Rylee across the display to see Santa. She was so strong I had to finally lean down and tell her that daddy was on the other side and she could go stand with him. Then she suddenly found her legs and ran as fast as she could and threw herself at him. So Ally and Emily sat with Santa. Emily asked for an easy bake oven and Ally asked for a princess flashlight and, with my encouragement, earrings to get her ears pierced. She's been begging since Emily got hers.

Nathan at 1 Month

Nathan turned one month today. He is such a sweet baby boy. He's really starting to have some awake times, which is fun. He stares intently and I keep waiting for him to break out into a big silly grin but it hasn't happened yet. He's also really starting to go to bed on his own well. I think he was a little spoiled with the rocking thing, plus the kid slept a ton so I never got a chance to put him down awake.

I am loving having a boy. It's weird that it can be so different yet so similar. I think pretty much he does the normal infant stuff, so I think it's my mindset and how he sounds and looks, which is all boy! Rylee is still his biggest fan. I find her putting, (or shall I say shoving), his pacifier in his mouth all of the time. And she is constantly kissing him or trying to hug him. He is still "her baby" and don't try to tell her differently.

Nathan and Molly. Molly Grace- born 10/31/09 Nathan Michael- 11/11/09 Don't you love those overalls! Thanks Stephanie for the great hand-me-down!

7 years old

Emily turned 7 on Tuesday. I have always thought that 7 seems so grown up, and actually having her turn 7 confirms it. She is such an independent person now. She is our cheerful helper, she has really taken the girls under her wing and patiently shows them how to do different things. She is a big reader and loves to go outside after school with her stack of books. We are very blessed to have her as our first born and we're enjoying every year with her. I'm excited to see what this year has in store for her!


Emily, on her actual birthday, taking cupcakes to school. I love that some teachers still let you bring homemade treats.
Emily at her birthday party last Friday. Tessa got to spend the night that night and they stayed up until midnight talking.

Emily opening her presents. She got a littlest petshop, an ipod type music player, $5, books, Barbie Wii game, and Mike and I are taking her in february to Disney on Ice.

I was going to bake Emily's cake to keep the cost down but my mom offered to surprise Emily with a cake so we went and picked out a Hello Kitty cake. It was super cute and really good, although very rich tasting.

Emily in front her of her banner and presents. We've had that banner at all of her birthday parties since her first. It's a tradition. I wonder how much she'll like it at 16?

Christmas and a Wedding

This past saturday was a busy day at the Littau house. We woke up really early so Mike, true to his word, got out the Christmas decorations. He always wants to decorate early but was worried about getting it done before the baby so he got it out extra early. The girls were super excited that morning and couldn't wait to put their ornaments on. Mike and I always get them a new ornament each year, put their name and theyear on the bottom. That way when they're older they'll have ornaments for their tree along with knowing what they were into that year. Last year Emily got an Ariel ornament, (no surprise), Ally got an Eden ornament from Barbie and the Christmas Carol, (her favorite movie), and we picked out Rylee a snoopy set. This year we picked them out for the girls as they were only $3.99 at Target.

This is Emily's ornament...Princesses.
Ally got to have a Tinkerbell ornament.

Rylee got a Winnie the Pooh ornament.

We rotate who gets to put the star on the tree each year and looking back at pictures, Allyson did it last year so Em had the honor this year...well of at least getting it on the tree because....

Mike felt bad for how sad Ally was and took pity on her and let her straiten it, she did a good job too.

After decorating, we shipped Ry off to mom and dads for a quick lunch and early nap. Then the girls and I got ready and went to Tricia's to get their hair done for my cousins wedding. They looked so so cute. Tricia does a great job with hair. This is Allyson's hair all pinned up. It was so adorable. She has a TON of hair and although it's a pain to do on a regular basis, it's great for things like this.

Here are the girls all dressed up and ready for pictures. This picture was before the actual photos started. By the end of the night, Rylee finally said "no pictures".

I caught Allyson sitting like this and thought it was so sweet. She looked adorable!

So I made Emily pose like that, she did her hand on her face on her own though. I thought it was super sweet.

Rylee wouldn't sit like that so she just sat. Her dress wasn't poofy enough for that anyway!

Emily's hair. It turned out beautiful and lasted all night. It's always a little sad to take it down.

All five of the flower girls. Left to Right...Ellyana age 2, Emily, 6, Ally 3, Rylee 2, and Trinity 5.

Bridal party.

Going down the aisle. Emily was so good during the wedding. She went down so nice and stood up there so still and serious. She was a great flower girl. She's had practice though, this was her third wedding.

Allyson and Rylee down the aisle...Ally was practicallly dragging Rylee down. Not because Rylee didn't want to go , because she loved it, but because Ally was nervous. Just look at the look on her face!

During the ceremony. Ally was a little wiggly and kept doing this huge fake yawn. Didn't expect that from her.

Daddy and Rylee. They look so nice that day!
Rylee, after the wedding, pre meltdown. Mike and Rylee left pretty quick after dinner.

Halloween 2009

We had a very eventfull halloween this year. Friday Emily got to wear her costume to school and have a parade and a class party. She had a ton of fun and looked cute.

On Halloween Day, we started with Emily's last soccer game. She's the kid in the red jersey in the middle of all of the blue jerseys. This years soccer was interesting. Sometimes she really wanted to be there, others she didn't. But Mike is thinking of being an assistant coach next year and I think she would really do well with him helping on her team. Now to just finish Mike's last day of baseball, (sunday a.m.), and sports are all finished in the Littau household!

The girls before the harvest carnival at Em's school put on by an awesome church in town. They had a lot of fun even though we didn't stay too long as the turnout was huge.

After the Carnival, we went to my parents and ate a great dinner and then took the girls trick or treating. They had so much fun and it was hilarious to see Rylee try to keep up. She was so excited she could barely contain herself. Towards the end, her bucket was so heavy she could barely keep up but she wouldn't let us help her. Finally, when someone tried to put a piece of candy in her bucket and it was so heavy she couldn't even lift it up to get the candy, we forced her to put some in Emily's already overflowing bucket. The girls were exhausted afterwards. I love trick or treating each year. I love watching them run from door to door. Brings back good memories.

Just some pics and an update

Emily at her first soccer game. It was around 103 that day which means about 115 on the field. Doesn't she look super grown up? We're not sure soccer is her sport. It's funny. She never is overly excited about going but if we say, "OK, then we won't go" she then retracts and decides she does after all. And then during the first week of school they drew a picture of themselves and she drew herself playing soccer and went on to write how much she loves playing. I honestly think it's the heat during the fall season. We'll see how she does when it starts to cool down, if it ever does!

Emily is doing great academically at school. Her teacher is very impressed with how far ahead she is. She's reading 136 words per minute, and they need to read 50 by the end of the year. She also knows at least the first 500 sight words, which I guess there's 100 per grade. So she's doing well. The only thing is, I guess she's kind of become more, shall I say, outgoing at school. So she occassionally is having to be told to keep it down a little! Not our Emily! Keep it down?

Ally is doing sooo much better. We have an awesome allergy/asthma specialist now. He has been working at controlling her lung function and getting them to perform where they should be. They were saying she was hovering just about 50% and I think she's definilty above that now. I also notice she is more awake. She really needed naps this summer and bed on time. Now she just needs a little quiet time and is still energetic at bedtime. Kind of a mixed blessing there!

The above picture is today. She had to have another blood draw. This one to do a nut allergy panel. That way we can not have to worry about which nuts she can or can't have. So I let her do her hair pretty, wear a church dress, nana met us at the office to hold her this time, (which is special for her and mewe took the girls to lunch at Wendys. I tried to make this a fun time because she's been poked so much lately. She did really well, after the blood draw anyway.

Rylee is a talking machine. Her newest phrase is, "caaaan IIII?" Impretty sure she learned that from Allyson. It's super cute though. Recently she had an ear infection and cold so I took her to the doctor since she had been so sick all day with a pretty good fever. The above picture is her, happy as a clam and cool as a cucumber at the doctors. Why do they always do that to you when you take them in? So sick all day and then BOOM, totally fine? It happens everytime. But the nurse said it always happens, even with her kids. So that made me feel a little less ridiculous. Now she's better and happy. We all are for a change. It's so nice. Now to stay healthy!

30 Weeks

I'm 30 weeks today and so far we have discussed nothing except the fact that we're definitly not finding out. And I think we may have come to the conclusion that we're going to make our loft into a fourth bedroom. But when and how that is supposed to happen is up in the air.

Every once in a while I'll throw a name out at Mike. He isn't too interested in actually picking out a name yet. So here's the "maybe" list. Thought maybe I could get some votes.

Girls
Hadley (Mike hates this name, my fav. He said she'll be call Hagley LOL!)
Kennedy (one we both agree on)
Sidney (Mike also likes this one)

Boys
Andrew (call him Drew)
Nathan (call him Nate)
Any suggestions. Mike hates Quinton and Eli, boys names I like.

Ally Funnies

Ally is our heavy heavy sleeper and because of that, she still wears pull ups at night. We tried a while ago to give that up but she just didn't wake up until morning no matter what we tried. But she REALLY REALLY wants to wear underware. So every morning the first thing she tells us is whether she wakes up dry or not. So here's this mornings conversation...

Ally: Mommy, Mommy, I didn't wet my pull up last night!!

Me: Oh, you didn't. Good job!

Ally: Can I wear panties now?

Me: After a couple nights of being dry you can.

Ally: Ok.

Off she goes. She runs off and changes out of her favorite pj's into new pjs. This is really weird because these are the pajamas she has to wear all of the time. She just tells me it's because the other ones "fell into the toilet".

Later that day, Em finds wet panties on the floor, (BLAH!). and brings them to me. I then check her bed. Sure enough it's wet. This is what I pieced together....

Ally, getting ready for bed, completly ignores me when I tell her to put a pull up on, (she does that if I don't actually check). Has an accident. In the morning realizes, hmmm, this isn't good. So she quickly takes them off and puts on a dry pull up. Seeing a rare opportunity, she runs into our room and declares the good news. She then realizes her wet pajamas and takes them off, because remember, "they fell into the potty". So what does she say when I confront her with the bald face lie and evidence? just a quiet, "oh". And off she went.

I was pretty impressed with the planning and strategy that she put into that. Obviously she needs to learn a little lesson on deception but behind the scenes I was laughing.

Later that day, they were playing outside and Emily comes running in, declaring she needs to "go" now. She said to me, "Ally said I'm doing the potty dance and I need to go potty. She told me to come inside."

Ally is just too smart for her own good I think!

Random Thoughts

We're finally reaching a healthy state in our household. Mike is still getting over the cold but it doesn't seem as bad. He's been good about taking Zinc and he also gets to take all that wonderful cold medicine I can't take so it doesn't seem too bad. Ally had a great checkup at the doctor Wednesday and now only has to use her inhaled steroid for a few months. The combo of steroid and albuterol took 25 mins., not good with a 3 year old.

We've made it through the first week of school. It seems to be going well. I asked Em's teacher how she's doing this week and she responded, "She's been doing great, and boy, she knows A LOT!" Always a nice thing to hear as a mom. I guess she's been a good friend and is always eager to answer questions while she's teaching. Hopefully the enthusiasm will last. What I want to know is, where is that person when she comes home? I think she saves all that energy up for me.

Soccer started last week, taking away 2 of our nights and part of a Saturday. Emily is doing ok. I think she doesn't particularly like the heat. Can't blame her. She's not doing too bad skills wise, however, she wants to be the social butterfly on the field. Doesn't really work with soccer. I think Ally is going to be our sports girl, she is dying to get on that field.

Ally's dr. and I agreed that she should be allergy tested. Has anyone ever done that? I hear it's kind of painful. I feel guilty about the timing. The dr. she's going to is supposed to be a really good one and I figured it would be a wait to get in. Turns out they have an appt. open for next Friday. It's a two hour appt. I feel kind of bad because at the hospital she was poked and proded a lot while she was there. Hopefully it won't be too bad.

Monday I'll be 28 weeks pregnant. I seriously have no idea how I got so far along! It feels like I haven't been to that many doctors appts. but after the 31st I think I'm on two week appts. That is crazy to me. Life goes by way too fast. Emily is dying to know what we're having. This morning she was trying to talk me into finding out for her. Poor thing, she's used to getting to know ahead of time.

I'm ready for fall to be here. This morning, in an hour and a half, it warmed up 20 degrees. I'm ready for long cool mornings and beautiful afternoons. My girls caught on weeks ago that it's too hot to play in the backyard and I'm really ready for them to go get out some energy.

I think that's all for now. Hopefully I didn't bore too much!

First Day Of First Grade

This is the best backpack picture I got. Not sure why she wouldn't smile well with it on. It was kind of loaded down with the required supplies and lunch box. I'm not sure she's used to that.

We managed to get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, and brush hair and teeth without a problem this morning. I'm hopeful that it will be the norm but I have a feeling it has a lot to do with it being the first day and that she got a new dress to wear. Her teacher, Mrs. Henning, seems really nice. It took Emily a while to learn it only because with my cold I couldn't say it right. It took Nana saying it for Emily to understand it correctly. I'm excited to see what this year will bring to Emily.

As a side note, I was working with Ally on her ABC flashcards this morning and we got to the letter B and for some reason she couldn't remember it. Rylee walks over, looks at the cards and says "B". She then did the same thing when Ally struggled with D for some reason. I just pulled the flashcards out to work with Ally for the first time so I have no idea how Rylee knew what B and D were.